Over the last five decades, antibiotics have literally saved millions of American lives and many more around the world. But bacteria and other harmful organisms mutate and over time develop resistance to medicines. As a result, illnesses that typically respond to medication are becoming much more difficult to treat. Is there any way out of this dilemma?
Antimicrobial resistance is not a new phenomenon, and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) explains why: “This happens when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them.” And dangerous germs not only survive, but continue to grow.
In the last few years, most of us have been so preoccupied with Covid, various financial challenges and social crises that microbial resistance has not received the attention it deserves. But this doesn’t mean the problem has disappeared. Unfortunately, not only is it still out there but it has become even more of a problem around the world, particularly in poor countries.
One expert in this field is Dr. Chris Murray, the Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. A study he helped author found that drug-resistant infections have killed 1.2 million people in 2019 worldwide and were indirectly responsible for another 5 million deaths.
Mutating Rapidly
Dr. Murray also learned that bacteria are mutating far faster than many researchers have anticipated. “This is now one of the leading causes of death in the world,” he said.
According to data from the CDC, there were more than 2.8 million microbial resistant infections in the US in 2019, and more than 35,000 deaths resulted from them. And now scientists are warning that these numbers could become much worse because the bacteria are mutating so rapidly.
One reason this is happening is that the theory of survival of the fittest extends to germs as well. Although most are destroyed by antibiotics, some are immune to them; they survive, multiply, and may become the dominant strain.
The widespread use of antibiotics is also responsible for their losing some of their efficacy. In addition, antibiotics are often administered to livestock, poultry, and fish. Initially, breeders used them only to treat sick animals. Subsequently, however, they noticed that animals given antibiotics grew faster and at that point they began to use them more frequently.
The widespread use of antibiotics is beneficial to farmers and others in the food industry, but there is a downside, too, because it is contributing to the rapid spread of drug-resistant germs. This creates problems and there are numerous examples.
US News recently reported that “bacteria found in hospital patients in Ukraine are showing extreme antibiotic resistance, making it harder to treat the wounded and ill.”
Several bacteria were resistant to broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents, including newly developed medicines. In Ukraine, at least one wounded soldier became infected with six different kinds of extremely resistant bacteria.
Scientific American reported that unless new antibiotics are developed, by 2050 antimicrobial resistance will cause 300 million premature deaths worldwide. «You can look at antibiotic resistance as a slow-moving global train wreck, which will happen over the next 35 years,” said health law expert Kevin Outterson of Boston University. «If we do nothing, this report shows us the likely magnitude of the costs.»
And those costs are shockingly high. Aside from illness, pain, and related suffering, which are difficult to estimate in financial terms, there is also a great cost to the global economy which, by 2050, will be up to $100 trillion.
The North American antibiotics market accounted for approximately $18.2 billion in 2021, according to Yahoo Finance. The global antibiotics market exceeded $43.25 billion in 2022.
Slow But Steady
Meanwhile, doctors are trying to combat serious infections and illnesses with drugs that are losing their efficacy. One of those is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, usually called MRSA. According to NYU Langone, MRSA can cause life-threatening infections in the bloodstream and at surgical-sites, as well as pneumonia. It is one of the most common antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Another disease caused by bacteria is Tuberculosis (TB). The CDC says this is a problem around the world and frequently causes death. TB is becoming resistant to those antibiotics used to treat it.
Shigella is another common infection caused by bacteria. Shigella affects the digestive system, often causing stomach pain, diarrhea, and fever, and on occasion it may cause even more severe symptoms. And it is very contagious. The first case of drug-resistant Shigella in the US turned up in 2016, and now it accounts for 5 percent of all of these infections.
Even aside from these, bacteria seem to be in the news very often these days. This summer, one New Yorker and two Connecticut residents died from flesh-eating bacteria, possibly contracted from either eating shellfish or swimming in saltwater. Separately, the FDA said organic kiwi had to be recalled in 14 states due to a potentially deadly listeria contamination; listeria is a bacterium that can cause severe, and in some people possibly fatal, infections.
If all of this sounds like gloom and doom, it shouldn’t, because there are some bright spots as well. A great deal of research is being conducted and there is encouraging progress. Possibly the one generating the most excitement in the scientific community is a new plant-based antibiotic called albicidin. It attacks bacteria in a completely different way than existing drugs do.
Dmitry Ghilarov, who heads a research group at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, told The Guardian that “This is one of the most exciting new antibiotic candidates in many years. It has extremely high effectiveness in small concentrations and is highly potent against pathogenic bacteria – even those resistant to the widely used antibiotics.”
So, despite the obvious health challenges, there is reason for optimism. Hopefully albicidin and other medicines being developed will live up to their potential and be fast-tracked by the government. Think positive - it’s good for your health.
Soures: bu.edu; cdc.gov; drugs.com; endoftheamericandream.com; npr.org; nytimes.com; nyulangone.org; scientificamerican.com; theepochtimes.com; usatoday.com; usnews.com; who.int; yahoofinance.com
Gerald Harris is a financial and feature writer. Gerald can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.