Antibiotic Resistance Will Be More Deadly than Cancer
Modern medicine relies on the use of antibiotics to prevent infection and they are essential when recovering from major surgery. Without antibiotics, many common medical procedures will become more dangerous. Invasive procedures, such as organ transplants and chemotherapy, will become lethal.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a post-antibiotic era is becoming a growing epidemic costing the US $35 billion every year. 2 million cases of antibiotic resistance among patients were documented in the country during 2013.
The great majority of antibiotic demand is for use in agriculture. Of the approximately 150,000 metric tons of antibiotics made each year in the US, 80 percent are used on livestock. They are used to speed the animals development and to protect their commercial value. The danger is that resistance to antibiotics builds and spreads rapidly between humans, animals and crops.…