Doctors and other health professionals have been issuing the
dire warning about a possible post-antibiotic era. A new age that actually is a regression back to the middle ages when now commonly treated aliments such as strep throats, cuts and even minor surgeries would be death threatening.
The New York Times is reporting events in India which may be the first indication that we are possibly already in an 'antibiotic apocalypse'.
Tens of thousands of newborns in India are dying every year as a result of once-treatable infections. India sees nearly one-third of the world's newborn demises, [...]. Last year alone, 58,000 infants died from bacterial infections; although that number represents a mere fraction of the 800,000 newborns that die in India every year, doctors are predicting a rise in infant mortality.
"Reducing newborn deaths in India is one of the most important public health priorities in the world, and this will require treating an increasing number of neonates who have sepsis and pneumonia," said Chief of Pediatrics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Dr. Vinod Paul, according to The New York Times. "But if resistant infections keep growing, that progress could slow, stop or even reverse itself. And that would be a disaster for not only India but the entire world."
The "superbugs" have spread around the world - including the United States, where the problem is exacerbated by antibiotic treatments on farms and overuse in hospitals,
Business Insider is also sounding the alarm that we may be in an 'apocalypse scenario'.
Last year, nearly a quarter of a million Americans died from bacterial infections that didn't respond to antibiotics. Certain strains of "nightmare bacteria" kill up to half of the patients they infect, and cases are becoming increasingly common across 42 states.
Several diseases that the US has kept in check with antibiotics have developed antibiotic-resistant strains, including gonorrhea, which is sexually transmitted and infects more than 100 million people a year, and tuberculosis, a serious lung infection that's returned with a vengeance across several continents in recent years.
The US is a major player in responsibility for the spread of antibiotic resistant superbugs, with nearly one half of all
antibiotic prescriptions unnecessary and with the
US meat industry now consuming four-fifths of all antibiotics! Unfortunately, you read that right, eighty percent of all antibiotics prescribed in US go to feed livestock which is bred for food; to make the livestock grow larger, faster and to keep them from getting sick in crowded, unsanitary conditions.
The FDA has issued voluntary guidelines (don't laugh) to reduce antibiotic misuse in the meat industry, but we all know that the livestock industry will not make changes unless there is strict regulation and monitoring.