ABR Officially U.N.deniable
Superbug (noun)- a pathogenic microorganism and especially a bacterium that has developed resistance to the medications normally used against it
This is how Merriam-Webster defines a superbug, and its presence represents the biggest threat to human health we have today. Superbugs have become such an imperative problem that the United Nations held their first crisis talk on the resistant bacteria last week because of growing fears of antibiotic resistance spreading around the planet. While this may not seem like a big deal, the significance lies in the rarity of these kinds of meetings. Consider this: since its formation, the United Nations has only initiated three summits on health-related topics. Those three summits were called to speak about, strategize, and fight against HIV, Ebola, and chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
Given the rare occasions in which the United Nations has called health meetings, it’s fairly obvious that superbugs and antibiotic resistant bacteria are a grave concern. Because of this, on Wednesday, September 21st, the U.N. General Assembly passed a declaration for all 193 countries that aims to monitor the use of antibiotics, slowdown the current levels of consumption, and ultimately, eliminate the formation of new superbugs while also terminating the spread of current ones. The plan calls for each country in the U.N. to come up with a two-year plan for guarding antibiotics. Each country must demonstrate deliberate methods of monitoring antibiotic use in medicine and agriculture. The goal is to limit unnecessary use. After two years, the secretary-general of the U.N. will review each country’s plan for positive progress and results.
Part of the reason why it is so important to find a solution to this problem lies in the severe consequences for mankind and the world’s economy if we don’t otherwise have an effective resolution. According to the CDC, 2 million Americans fall ill to antibiotic-resistant infections each year, of which about 23,000 are fatal cases. A 2014 British study shows that there are approximately 700,000 annual deaths worldwide. In addition to the loss of human life, many nations are becoming aware of the threat that antibiotic resistance poses against the economy. The U.K. government estimates losses upwards of $100 trillion dollars by 2050 if we don’t solve this epidemic (NPR). The World Bank projects that antibiotic resistance could hurt the economy as much as or even more so than the Great Recession of the 2008 financial crisis with global GDP dropping as much as 4% (NPR).
If history is an indication of the future, then we know that loss of life and loss of money are big enough motivators for mankind to find a cure. The U.N.’s emergency summit and declaration emphasizes the significance of antibiotic resistance as a truly global issue. Most of the world is now watching to see how we will circumvent the epidemic, but interestingly enough, doctors have been warning about this exact scenario for years. Let’s look back at a little history.
In 1789, George Washington became the first president of the U.S., but when he left the Oval Office in 1797, he warned against forming and joining political parties. Society ignored his warnings, formed political parties anyway, and look where we stand with regard to political parties now. Well, in similar fashion, the same anecdote applies to antibiotics. A Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming first discovered penicillin in 1928. However, it did not start becoming widely used until World War II. After World War II, Alexander Fleming said in 1945 that there is a “danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” That hypothesis foreshadowed our exact position 71 years later. Maybe we could have avoided this situation if we listened to Alexander Fleming. Maybe it was inevitable either way. Regardless, this epidemic can no longer be denied. Everyone must come together to find the right solution, and the U.N. has jumpstarted that process with its declaration a week ago.
