Antibiotic resistance: We can develop new antibiotics, but need a new way to finance it
An article on research.no addresses the problem of not developing new antibiotics, while the threat of antibiotic resistance is considered one of the greatest threats to humanity.
The background
Today, in Europe thousands of thousands of people die every year because of multiresistant bacteria. So the problem of people dying of multiresistant bacteria is not just a possible future scenario, but is already a severe problem. The challenge is that from tens of thousands of thousands of deaths every year today, it could increase to many times in the not too distant future.
Some time in the future, you may find yourself hospitalized because of a relatively simple infection, but an infection that can not be treated and you end up losing your life.
Problems with today's way of financing the development of new antibiotics
Antibiotics developed up until now have been financed by private enterprises. It costs lots and lots of money to research new medicines, so the private companies rely on being able to sell a lot and make vasts amount of money off of the medicines they get accepted on the market. As noted in the above article, this model is not sustainable, because today's guidelines are that antibiotics should be used and sold to the least extent possible.
Possible means
A change to the financing model seems to be inevitable. For example, one can consider using subsidies to research and develop new antibiotics. Another mean is to extend the time the private enterprise has exclusive rights on the particular medicine. One challenge with the latter is that it will take even longer time before other private companies can start producing the same medicine at a lower price, so that the medicine can become available to individuals and countries with less fortunate economic conditions than we have in developed countries.
... look into and research Colloidal Silver and its amazing properties!
Thanks for the tip. I'd never even heard of Colloidal Silver before. Over at Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_uses_of_silver), they referenced a Cochrane study that claimed that "there is insufficient evidence to establish whether silver-containing dressings or topical agents promote wound healing or prevent wound infection". Maybe there are more recent studies concluding that it indeed has antibacterial effect?
Or this one: "97 percent of hospital superbugs killed with copper" - http://www.naturalnews.com/033398_superbugs_copper.html
Interesting stuff. Looks like there been some development within antibiotics recently after all. Thanks for sharing this information.
Here is an interesting article: "Samsung Introduces Washing Machines Using Patented Nano Silver Ions" - http://www.silverdoctors.com/silver/silver-news/samsung-introduces-washing-machines-using-patented-nano-silver-ions/
This is top-notch!
A boost in research of antibiotics is critical. Science is slow, and although the budget is an important factor, doubling the budget does not mean cutting the times in a half. Metal nanoparticles may be very useful in future, but unlike current antibiotics they are extremely toxic, so they should be incapsulated and conducted to the bacteria inside our body, and that is very difficult.
In the meantime reducing the human consumptiom of antibiotics can save many people for getting resistant bacteria, but use of antibiotics in cattle is the bigger cause of bacteria resistance and it seems that nobody talks about it. Cattle systematically receives big amounts of antibiotics along all their life, and traces of this antibiotics are spread to the soil, water and meat.
Starting by 2006 the EU banned non-medicinal use of antibiotics in livestock production, but according to the stats the amount of antibiotics used in cattle industry only has been greatly reduced in a few countries like Sweeden. Starting by 2017 USA did the same, but biggest producers of meat like China and Brazil have done almost nothing to solve this issue.
Yeah, the use of antibiotics in livestock is massive. I've heard that even clothes we buy are added antibiotics to keep them from smelling after being stored in boxes for months and months.
In the short term, reduction of antibiotics is crucial. In some countries, however, one can purchase antibiotics over the counter in drug stores, even without consulting a medical doctor. These countries need to put a stop to this practice, and make sure antibiotics are only available on prescription.
I have found that some clothings have antibiotics and they are sold as antimicrobial to "germ-phobic" people. They are dangeorus to the environment, can poison babies and children who lick them, and they are quite uneffective because after a few washes the effect disappears.
http://www.nyrnaturalnews.com/environment/2011/12/antibacterial-clothing-a-fashionable-threat-to-human-health/
Sounds like we need some (international) legislation to overcome this (I presume) misuse of antibiotics.
Completely agree, this is a global problem and cannot be solved without international actions.