One of our stated purposes at LSS is to scan the media feeds, both news and scientific, to bring you the best possible stories on the continuing crisis caused by antibiotic resistant micro-organisms. That’s superbugs in short. And one journalist whose work we have featured time and again is the indefatigable Nicola Davis who writes for the Guardian. Well today she has done it again, in an intriguing new take. It’s going to take quite some time before new drugs can be tested and made ready. Meanwhile people are starting to die, in quite large numbers. What can we do? [1]
Well, quite a lot according to Nicola. Like a good journalist, she starts by reprising how truly awful the current situation is. The figures are eyewatering. To take 2019 as a good pre COVID baseline, antibiotic resistant microorganisms were implicated in 4.95 million deaths, with a definite attribution possible in 1.27 million cases. So are we just going to wait, to sit around and wring our hands until new antibiotics come along? No, quite a lot is possible in the meantime, Citing the work of Professor Laxminarayan of Princeton, she writes:
……………AMR-associated deaths in LMICs could be cut by 18%, equivalent to about 750,000 a year, through three key steps……..The team team suggests an estimated 247,800 deaths are preventable through universal access to clean water and improved sanitation and hygiene, while 337,000 deaths could be prevented through better infection prevention and control in healthcare settings…….Another 181,500 deaths are preventable by means of childhood vaccinations,
But Nicola’s article, and the link she provides to The Lancet, are far more detailed [2]
An our thoughts? After so many years bashing you on your heads, gentle readers, we see actual grounds for optimism First journalists like Nicola are getting on to this.( See also MD of Private Eye and Stacey Liberatore of the Mail) Secondly, there’s nothing so likely to wither effort as the thought that we are powerless. Beyond hope. Passive. And as this article shows, nothing could be further from the truth.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/23/huge-number-of-deaths-linked-to-superbugs-can-be-avoided-say-experts
[2]https://www.thelancet.com/series/antibiotic-resistance
#superbugs #antibiotic resistance #pandemic #health #vaccination #sanitation #preventive medicine #nicola davis #md private eye #stacey liberatore
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