Killed by the Resistance - How we lost the Antibiotics

The sun was setting and empty plastic bags were tumbling down the streets when Dr. Miller decided that it was finally safe enough to go out and try to find some food.

During the day, groups of aggressive survivors posed too much of a threat for her to leave the safety of the abandoned basement she had made her home. The cold and slightly wet environment scared the other survivors away. They didn’t want to risk compromising their immune system in any way.

It had been 5 years now, since one single strain of bacteria had wiped out about half of the earth’s human population. Pseudomonas aeruginosa hadn’t been that much of a problem at first. Sure, immunocompromised patients usually died of pneumonia when they caught it, but a healthy person didn’t need to worry.

Until it mutated.

Nobody knew exactly what had happened, everything escalated way too fast. The pathogen picked up some genetic information that made it a lot more resistant to the human immune system. Combined with the fact that Pseudomonas was already resistant to most commonly used antibiotics, it was a disaster.

While countries started closing their borders and scientists all over the world started working on new antibiotics, the pathogen started mutating with a rate never observed before.

Dr. Miller remembered vividly, how one day, she synthesized an antibiotic that stopped the synthesis of new proteins and the next the bacteria had started pumping the drug out of their cells.

She inhibited cell wall synthesis, the bacteria started producing an enzyme that changed the antibiotic and made it harmless. A disturbance of DNA synthesis was counteracted by protective proteins. When she destroyed the ability to absorb certain nutrients, the bacteria started to produce it themselves. Every for an antibiotic possible mechanism was thwarted.

Her team eventually tried more aggressive methods usually used in chemotherapy, but while those did kill the pathogen, all of the patients died with it. There was just no way to win.

Eventually, more and more scientists contracted the disease, as it spread over the globe. Governments collapsed and whole countries simply died.

As the population got less, the pathogen had a harder time to pass on from one person to another and the epidemic died down. The remaining humans were those that had been careful, solitary and relentless. As soon as one member of their groups showed any sign of illness, they were killed and burnt.

It wasn’t the best way, at least in Dr. Miller’s eyes, but it was too late now to change anything. Humanity would have needed to act a lot earlier, at a point where antibiotic resistance was much less of a problem.

But doctors had prescribed antibiotics like sugar pills, patients had not taken them the way they were told. The food industry had given their animals tons and tons of antibiotics to prevent diseases, because it had been easier to do that instead of giving the animals more space and healthier conditions. Parents refused to vaccinate their children, which increased the number of antibiotics needed for preventable bacterial infections.

People just didn’t care and think enough. Until it had been too late.

For the first year after the global collapse, Dr. Miller had still been motivated to find a cure. She had seen her survival as a sign that she had to move on. But her resources got less and less and society showed no signs of recovering.
And now here she was. Scared. Alone. Searching for the absolute basics to survive another day.

She coughed in her hand and looked at it. The view of blood caused a painful smile on her face. Maybe she didn’t need to endure all this much longer.

Footnote: While this is a fictional story, the danger of antibiotic resistance is very real and pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa are already so resistant that the World Health Organization desperately tries to find new antibiotics. But the ways those antibiotics can work are limited and the more resistant a pathogen gets, the harder it becomes to find new antibiotics. So do your share: Don’t take antibiotics unless you absolutely need them. Follow your doctor’s instructions when you need to take them. Get yourself and your children vaccinated. Avoid spreading preventable diseases.

Sources + Read more about the topic:
https://www.drugs.com/article/antibiotics.html
http://www.emedexpert.com/lists/antibiotics.shtml
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/bacteria-antibiotics-needed/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudomonas_infection
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4888801/

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