The Bugs Will Get Us

I recall a stack of tweets, blog posts, and even a book, Antibiotic Resistance: The End Of Modern Medicine? (2017), from Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles, yes her of the red hair, a researcher and science communicator based at Auckland University. The messages she was sending out were disturbing and bloody scary.

Not only do Baym's experiments show how quickly antimicrobial resistance can emerge, they beautifully illustrate the power of selection: mutants survive when they have an advantage. And what better way to have an advantage than when antimitochondrials are present? In other words, antimitochondrial use drives resistance.

[Note: Whilst Wiles book is an excellent intro to the subject, clear and concise, it is particularly excellent reading for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand as she highlights what it means to each and every Kiwi.]

In essence the bugs, and by that I mean bacteria not viruses, are getting immune to antibiotics which means we may end up back in Medieval Ages without any protection from the everyday cuts and sniffles we all experience. Think of childbirth without effective antibiotics. Maybe you have to go in for some surgery but there is no real way to fight bacteria, the phrase "relatively minor surgery" goes away.

Eek!

But all this was back in 2017 and a lot of other things have happened since, COVID anyone, and it all faded from my memory. Not that it's faded in any way from being real and we, all of humanity, are going to have to deal with.

The other day I saw this headline, The world is facing an antibiotic emergency: a data-led plan of action is needed now ... oh yeah, I remember that, FUCK!

Over the next 25 years, someone will die every three minutes from common, preventable and formerly treatable health conditions, simply because the antibiotics we use to treat them will have stopped being effective. Unless, that is, the world steps up to respond to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Those three letters, AMR, are going to become ones we all get to know and hate.

From cancer patients in the UK and elderly people in Japan to children in Niger, no one is exempt from the threat of AMR. This is a global crisis that needs global action. Now is the time to be bold and ambitious in our actions to ensure current and future generations have effective and accessible antibiotics, because millions of lives are in the balance.

I actually have every confidence in the people like Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles and all those around the world researching, collaborating, and inventing new ways to treat bacteria and to hold off AMR.

What can you and I do:

• Learn to wash and DRY your hands properly
• Steer clear of drinking unpasteurised ('raw') milk
• Wash fruit and veggies
• Keep raw meat away from veggies
• NZ: avoid swimming in our lakes and rivers
• Get vaccinated
• Use condoms and dental dams
• Get tested to make sure you're not asymptomatically carrying an STI
• Always finish a course of antibiotics, ALWAYS

(via Antibiotic Resistance: The End Of Modern Medicine?, Siouxsie Wiles 2017)

Good luck everyone ...