Author
Professor of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University
I grew up believing in the forward trajectory of progress in science and medicine – that human health would continue to improve as it had for hundreds of years. As I progressed through my own career in health sciences, I continued to be optimistic.
Now I have serious doubts.
Science is still working well, but deadly obstacles are blocking the way between research and progress in the field where I work: Antibiotics.
The threat to humankind is grave and growing worse by the day, but for reasons that escape my colleagues and me, there appears to be shockingly little collective will to do much about it.
This week (Nov. 12-18) is World Antibiotic Awareness Week. We need to talk about this threat. We need to develop models of public-private co-operation — to incentivize, fund and invest in antibiotic drug discovery and development.
Penicillin led to complacency
Here’s the problem: about 75 years ago, science brought penicillin into public use, opening a new era in infectious disease control, much as sanitation had done before that. Infectious diseases such as pneumonia and strep, which had commonly been fatal even in my grandparents’ day, were tamed — at least for a time.
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