The head of the WHO announces that we are close to entering the "post-antibiotic era", where an infected cut could again prove be fatal.
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You can still buy antibiotics over the counter in many European countries (Greece and Spain for sure).
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A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child's scratched knee could once again kill.
... Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in Europe, and elsewhere in the world. We are losing our first-line antimicrobials.
Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units.
For patients infected with some drug-resistant pathogens, mortality has been shown to increase by around 50 per cent.
Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy, and care of preterm infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.
... Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in Europe, and elsewhere in the world. We are losing our first-line antimicrobials.
Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units.
For patients infected with some drug-resistant pathogens, mortality has been shown to increase by around 50 per cent.
Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy, and care of preterm infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.
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