ISTOCK, ERAXIONWe are at risk of entering a post-antibiotic era.
Each year since 2013, a major global institution—including the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization and the United Nations General Assembly—has issued this grave warning to the world.
A post-antibiotic future is daunting. When the drugs don’t work, we get sicker more often. We stay sicker longer. This hurts the economy because sick people don’t work.
In response, we really only have two options.
One is to gather more arrows in our quiver—by discovering new antibiotics to which microbes like bacteria are not currently resistant.
The second is to manage our current arsenal of drugs better so that they remain effective for as long as possible. The key to doing this is to reduce the global burden of antibiotic resistance by decreasing the quantity ...
