Yesterday I participated in Table Talk: Germs, Superbugs, and Antibiotic Resistance. I had previously known about the debate surrounding antibiotic overprescription and the discovery of superbugs, and I was excited to learn more about the current state of debate. An interesting question Cynthia posed was how prevalent are deaths from superbugs, really? I rarely hear of superbug deaths in the news, so I estimated that it is not very common, and that would be correct. But given that it is not very prevalent, why are we worrying about it now and pressuring doctors to prescribe less antibiotics?
I was not aware before that the prevalence of superbugs has been growing at a high pace in recent years. In fact, just this week, the WHO issued a list of the top 12 most dangerous bacterial threats to humans, resistant to antibiotics. Although superbugs have not posed a huge threat in the past, if we continue with daily life hand sanitizer/antibiotic use without thought, we will be creating the potential for stronger and stronger superbugs. But we should be able to design new antibiotics to treat these superbugs right? Another interesting point is that the development of new antibiotics has slowed, partly because developing antibiotics is not as profitable for drug companies as committing to a potential blockbuster drug used in chronic diseases. There is simply not enough profit potential of an antibiotic intended for a few weeks use to justify the enormous R&D costs. Given this precarious situation, as a society, it is important to stay vigilant and take action now to combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. We can take steps in the present to eliminate potential future catastrophe.
Superbugs is an interesting phenomenon and probably an inevitability because of the innate nature of evolution and natural selection, but it has been exacerbated by poor habits in taking antibiotics and such. I also have not heard much about deaths from these so-called superbugs but I feel it is happening in places with robust medical care that can detect these are superbugs and appropriate action can be taken. However, it doesn’t seem impossible that it can spread rapidly in a certain regions in third-world countries, compounding the problem and exploiting our weaknesses in effective antibiotics. Unfortunately as you point out, it is incredibly expensive to produce antibiotics so I am not quite sure what we need to do to slow down the rise of superbugs. Perhaps hygiene alone can ward it off for the time being but that is dependent on humans and we all know how lazy we can be, even if unintentional.
It is unfortunate that drug companies look for profitability over the welfare of the society while developing new drugs. I completely agree that we need to innovate and push towards creating more robust antibiotic resistance.