Finding New Antibiotics Sources

In a world without antibiotics, transplant surgery would be virtually impossible, pneumonia (once again) would become a mass-killer, gonorrhoea would be hard to treat and tuberculosis would become incurable. In 2014, the UK Government’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance warned that failure to tackle drug-resistant infections could lead to at least 10 million extra deaths a year by 2050 and end up costing the global economy up to £70 trillion.

Natural Antibiotics Sources

With the world’s cabinet of useful antibiotics almost bare, we have seen that researchers are rushing to discover replacements using natural resources, although developing medicines that selectively kill bacteria is a difficult problem to solve. Some researchers are trying to mine the untapped potential of soil bacteria, devising new kinds of growth chambers that might allow unstudied species to thrive in the lab. Others are genetically engineering microbes to produce novel compounds that could be useful for making medicines. Still others are scavenging the native antibiotics in ocean life, fungi and insects.

Until we have replacements, it is important to keep bacteria at bay. Hygiene is an obvious weapon. Better cleaning, hand gels and stern warnings to staff and public alike have helped reduce infection rates in hospitals.

Antibiotics Conservation

There is also a real need to conserve those antibiotics we have, including those used in livestock and fish farming (veterinary use of antibiotics outstrips human use globally). Human health may be at risk from antibiotic resistant infections being passed on via the food chain, from direct contact with infected animals and from farm waste. For example, biologists at York have found that only trace concentrations of antibiotic, such as those found in sewage outfalls, are enough to enable bacteria to maintain antibiotic resistance. In the USA more than 70% of antibiotics that are medically important for humans are used in animals.

The finite lifetime of our current arsenal of antibiotics has been likened to the world’s finite reserves of oil. With the problems of energy usage, carbon trading was introduced to try to conserve oil and also reduce its pollutant effects. If such a worldwide tax were introduced for antibiotics the proceeds could fund future research and development.

But should we tax life-saving antibiotics, especially in poor countries?

Globally, should we reduce antibiotic use in food production, in livestock and fish farming, and introduce restrictions on the use of antibiotics that are important for humans in these animals?

Antibiotics Without Prescription

A report in 2018 showed antibiotics are frequently supplied without a prescription – between 2000-2017, in the 24 countries in the study, this equated to around 78% of antibiotic requests (and 60% of consultations related to the symptoms of infectious diseases).