Antibiotic resistant superbugs are on the rise and have become a massive cause for concern for health professionals.
Such is the worry around antibiotic superbugs that experts believe that they will claim 10 million lives by 2050, with 700,000 people dying a year after catching the infections, according to a recent report from the Healthcare Infection Society
The latest outcry over the superbugs comes after an unnamed woman in Nevada, who was reportedly in her 70s, died after contacting an incurable infection.
Testing on the deceased woman showed that the superbug had spread through her system and was resistant to 26 different types of antibiotics.
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Superbugs will kill 10 million people by 2050
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“[The infection] was tested against everything that’s available in the United States"
Dr. Alexander Kallen, a medical officer in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of health care quality promotion, told Stat News: “[The infection] was tested against everything that’s available in the United States … and was not effective.
“I think it’s concerning. We have relied for so long on just newer and newer antibiotics. But obviously the bugs can often [develop resistance] faster than we can make new ones.”
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"This is the harbinger of future badness to come.”
Dr. James Johnson, a professor of infectious diseases medicine at the University of Minnesota and a specialist at the Minnesota VA Medical Center, chillingly added: “I think this is the harbinger of future badness to come.”
Humans, especially in the Western World, have become so reliant on antibiotics to help cure illnesses that many of the bacteria that they are trying to fight have become resistant to them through evolution.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says: “New resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases, resulting in prolonged illness, disability, and death.
“Without effective antimicrobials for prevention and treatment of infections, medical procedures such as organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy, diabetes management and major surgery (for example, caesarean sections or hip replacements) become very high risk.
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Superbugs have evolved to become resistant to antibiotics
“Antimicrobial resistance occurs naturally over time, usually through genetic changes. However, the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials is accelerating this process.
“In many places, antibiotics are overused and misused in people and animals, and often given without professional oversight.”
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