There is no question that antibiotics have lent a helping hand in treating various ailments, but now this modern medicine is fueling an issue that was perhaps never considered before. Since their introduction, antibiotics have slowly been fueling the development of superbugs – bacteria that are completely resistant to our conventional treatments. In fact, a recently released report says that superbugs could claim 10 million lives each year as well as $100 trillion by 2050.
Economist and head of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, Jim O’Neill says that the trend of growing infections resistant to drugs, which are already killing hundreds of thousands of people across the globe every year, is set to get worse unless we do something now.
O’Neill said:
“Drug-resistant infections already kill hundreds of thousands a year globally, and by 2050 that figure could be more than 10 million. The economic cost will also be significant, with the world economy being hit by up to 100 trillion US dollars (£63.6 trillion) by 2050 if we do not take action.