Antibiotic resistance might be a word you’ve heard in a biology class or possibly noticed when skimming the news, but in the near future it will probably be a word you hear a lot more often, due its detrimental effects. While antibiotic resistance isn’t technically a problem by nature, our rebuttal against bacterial infections in tandem with resistance has caused an imminent crisis.

What is antibiotic resistance?

This phenomenon occurs when a bacteria develops genetic advantages which allow them to avoid termination by an antibiotic. For example, when looking at a cluster of bacteria, at least a few of them usually have some sort of genetic variation that separates them from the rest. This variation is what gives the bacteria the power to survive in the presence of a certain antibiotic. However, the bacteria that don’t have this advantage are destroyed by this antibiotic, leaving only the special few behind. Now, the only bacteria left in the cluster are hence, stronger and can withstand what was supposed to kill them. As more antibiotics are developed and more resistance occurs, bacteria are becoming extremely difficult to kill off. Even though we are discussing antibiotic related resistance and not antiviral, this concept is still similar to the commonly known reason why new “versions” of influenza (the flu) keep developing. To learn more about what causes antibiotic resistant, please watch this YouTube video, which animates and explains the process in an easy to understand way!

Why is it a problem?

McKenna in her TED Talk.

In this TED Talk, public health journalist, Maryn McKenna shares her concern for the future regarding antibiotic resistance. She explains that even though antibiotics seemed to have changed the world for the better, many different bacteria have developed a resistance against antibiotics soon after they were initially created. This continuous resistance has lead manufacturers to lose interest in treatment, slowing down the pace at which antibiotics are being made. McKenna shares a startling fact that this crisis can ultimately lead to a predicted amount of 10 million deaths worldwide by the year 1050. Ultimately the bacteria are too good and too fast at besting our warfare against them. As this issue is starting to more rapidly affect our population, the editor’s board at the New York Times shares how antibiotic resistant bacteria are being categorized by threat level concluding that, “Twelve drug-resistant strains, including such common germs as salmonella, tuberculosis and MRSA, were classified as ‘serious threats.’” As this issue worsens, the odds of people dying from common illnesses such as strep throat, which used to be so easily cured are starting to rise.

What to do?

Pictured here is nobelist Venki Ramakrishnan.

There are a few different options that have the potential to slow the resistance down. One option is to raise funds in order to perpetuate the discovery of new antibiotics. The industry is incredibly expensive but motivation for companies to continue creating new drugs may be what separates life and death for many. The main argument in this course of action is that bacteria’s’ ability to become resistant is exponentially much faster than teams of scientists trying to combat them. Many say this course of action is too expensive and will accelerate the problem to a point of no return.

The other option is in the complete opposite direction, which is to peel back on antibiotic use. In the TED Talk I mentioned previously, McKenna explains how humans caused this resistance, through excessive antibiotic use in healthcare and agricultural settings. By limiting the use in these settings we can in turn prevent it. Society can avert the crisis by altering social norms and being cautious about the everyday uses of antibiotics. In terms of the healthcare settings, physicians need to be trained and much more aware about when it is appropriate to prescribe antibiotics, instead of letting the body naturally handle it on its own. In this interview published by the Scientific American with Venki Ramakrishnan, a chemist from the University of Cambridge, Ramakrishnan states that too many people use antibiotics as a first resort rather than a last one and in some countries antibiotics are even sold over the counter. As having experience interning in a urgent care before, there were many times I watched nervous parents demand antibiotics for their ill children. Meanwhile, the child simply has a cold or the flu and is not suitable for those types drugs at all (this is because both the common cold and flu are viral and not bacterial infections). Additionally, in many other scenarios, the diagnostic process is not being taken seriously enough and therefore treatment is generalized, all promoting resistance. As a responsibility for all licensed physicians, this needs to be taken more seriously and will help the crisis from getting worse at a significantly faster rate.

On the flip side, as a responsibility for society and potentially the government in particular, regulating antibiotic administration to farm animals is also vital. Because many companies in the agricultural department are motivated by monetary ideals, the final products of their trade have caused lots of harm. When overloading cattle, for example, with antibiotics and keeping them in mal-environments (factory farming), resistant bacteria thrive and flourish. These bacteria are then packaged and served in patty form — delicious. Because farm animals (whether vegetarians like it or not) are relatively disposable in the industrial sense, regulating excessive drug administration is much easier in this department than in any other. This falls in the hands of the agricultural companies and consumers who enable the crisis, who need say no to unnecessary antibiotic use.

The common trend among all the options to prevent the soon-to-be epidemic are that it is our collective responsibility to fix it. It is not just the doctors, or a specific region, or the government’s fault alone. As a whole our world needs to pay more attention to the antibiotic resistance crisis and work together so that an illness nobody would have thought twice about 10 years ago doesn’t wipe out thousands if not millions of people 10 years into the future.