England's former chief medical officer claims that the rise of drug-resistant superbugs could present a crisis worse than the Covid pandemic.
Kat Lay reports for The Guardian.
In short:
- Prof Dame Sally Davies, the UK’s special envoy on antimicrobial resistance, emphasizes the urgent need to address superbug resistance, which she views as more severe than climate change.
- Drug-resistant infections, killing over 1.2 million people annually, could jeopardize modern medical procedures like surgeries and cancer treatments if not controlled.
- The UK government has launched a national action plan to curb the misuse of antimicrobials and foster new treatments and vaccines.
Key quote:
“It looks like a lot of people with untreatable infections, and we would have to move to isolating people who were untreatable in order not to infect their families and communities. So it’s a really disastrous picture.”
— Prof Dame Sally Davies, former chief medical officer
Why this matters:
The growing threat of antibiotic-resistant pathogens poses a potential global health crisis that could dwarf the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more: Scientists warn of disinfectant dangers.
