Stubbed toes could end in amputations in a post-antibiotic world, scientist warns
Antibiotics, the backbone of modern medicine, are at risk of becoming obsolete if growing resistance to the drugs is ignored, a leading microbiologist says.
A world without penicillin may sound apocalyptic, but Siouxsie Wiles believes this could be reality within a decade unless the world acts swiftly.
‘‘The prediction is that, without urgent action, by 2025 we could see a pre-antibiotic era when a simple stubbed toe could mean amputation or death,’’ Wiles says.
Researchers warn of a doomsday scenario of 10 million deaths a year from infection – a fatality every three seconds.
Ministry of Health chief nursing officer Jane O’Malley agrees returning to a pre-antibiotic era is possible.
‘‘The important thing to realise is we have comparatively low rates of antibiotic resistance at the moment, but our antibiotic use is relatively high in the community and that’s something we have to manage,’’ O’Malley says.
Wiles, a science communicator and head of Auckland University’s bioluminescent superbugs lab, raised the global issue in her book, Antibiotic Resistance: The End of Modern Medicine?
‘‘It’s not just our ability to treat infectious diseases it’s our ability to treat vulnerable patients,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s thoroughly terrifying – it’s how we do modern medicine.’’
Wiles says New Zealand is not at crisis point yet but resistance chains are around.
More than two-thirds of our infectious disease hospitalisations in 2013 were for bacterial infections in 2013, she says.
‘‘Our rates of staphylococcus are the highest in the developed world.
‘‘Streptococcus, sometimes digest [and causes strep prevalent.
‘‘By world standards our rates of rheumatic fever are shocking.’’
While poor housing and poverty which can human flesh throat] is also adds to the problem, it’s important to remember no one is immune, she says.
‘‘If you breathe and you’re you are at risk.’’
In a UK review on anti-microbial resistance (AMR), completed in alive, 2016, author and economist Jim O’Neill stated: ‘‘By 2050, the death toll could be a staggering one person every three seconds if AMR is not tackled now’’.
Current death rates are estimated at 700,000 each year globally, O’Neill wrote.
In May 2015, the World Health Organisation released a global action plan to tackle antibiotic resistance, and New Zealand promised to have a national action plan in place by next month.
That’s on track and must be public by May 21, when it reaches the World Health Assembly – which is a bit like an annual meeting for the world of health, O’Malley says.
The plan will include educate the public and the spread of resistance.
‘‘We need to act now need to act globally, and O’Malley says.
‘‘Wide use of vaccination, best use of personal hand hygiene and isolation when you’re sick – these are all things that human beings can apply.’’
Wide availability and liberal use of antibiotics has not done us any favours, O’Malley says.
‘‘We have got into a situation where people get an infection, they go to their doctor and we expect the doctor will give a medication to fix it and that’s not realistic.’’
But Wiles is concerned that the plan will not go far enough: ‘‘Like climate change, it’s this idea that we’re not going to see it impacting us ’til it’s too late’’.
‘‘It’s going to take time to get things in place, and we’re not doing that.’’ ways to mitigate and we in partnership,’’