WHO reports this week that multi-drug resistant tuberculosis has reached unprecedented levels worldwide: one in four in some places! Meanwhile here in the US, we’re in a snit over a few modest reforms for health insurers. I have a new article coming out at e360 on how wanton overuse of antibiotics contributes to the spread of resistant bacteria. E.g. much of the antibiotics we feed to our livestock and douse our bodies with are excreted into the environment unchanged, deposited into waterways, spread on crops as fertilizer. When bacteria in the water and soil are exposed to this stuff, it selects for resistant strains….which can then trade genes with other, more pathogenic bacteria (they do that, those bacteria!) You’d be surprised to know the huge proportion of the drugs we consume actually end up in the environment, essentially unchanged. It’s not something most people think about.
Considering the scale of the health issues we face, our national snit over health insurance reform seems especially petty.
Check out the WHO report here.
