Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

United Kingdom

Drug resistant bugs threaten mankind

Professor Dame Sally Davies

Bugs that cannot be killed by anti-biotics could wipe out humanity, warns England’s Chief Medical Officer.

Professor Dame Sally Davies said some strains are already resistant to drugs.

Advertisement

She added that the threat to the human world was greater than climate change.

She said: “Anti-biotics underpin modern medicine – you can’t have gut surgery, replacement hips, all sorts of surgery without risking infection.

“At least 10 million could die every year if we don’t get on top of this.”

She said some bugs, including tuberculosis, MRSA and Clostridium difficile no longer respond to treatment.

Dame Sally also warned against importing fish and meat from countries that “misuse” anti-biotics in farming.

Overuse of anti-biotics in medicine or agriculture allows illnesses to adapt to the drugs trying to cure them.

Dame Sally, who is soon to retire, said: “We humans are doing it to ourselves, but it could kill us before climate change does.

“It is a very important area and we are under-investing in sorting it out.”

Over the last five years the UK has cut by seven per cent the amount of anti-biotics in use.

However, between 2013 and 2017 the number of drug resistant bloodstream infections increased by 35 per cent.

 

 

Comments

Trending

Latest Tweets

Advertisement

You May Also Like

United Kingdom

Film director Ridley Scott has recalled the death of actor Oliver Reed while making the Oscar winning blockbuster Gladiator. Scott said hard-drinking Reed “just...

Business

The controversial Russian businessman Viktor Baturin, well-known for his years-long counterstanding with his wealthy sister Elena, widow of Moscow ex-mayor Yuri Luzhkov, is likely...

United Kingdom

The Tremeloes. Dave Munden centre Dave Munden the Tremeloes drummer – and often lead singer – with the 60s chart toppers has died. He...

United Kingdom

The Watneys Party Seven is making a comeback. The ubiquitous 70s beer was a bland fizzing bitter ridiculed by many. The drink’s insipidness helped...