It seemed that with the discovery in 1928 of penicillin, man took a step towards immortality. Now the diseases, which had previously driven millions of unfortunate people to the grave, were amenable to treatment, and the average life expectancy rose sharply.
Scientists have developed more and more antibiotics and … drove us into a trap. Now the global threat to humanity is not represented by newly emerging diseases, but by mutant microbes that are immune to the action of antibiotics.
No, we are not talking about Ebola or, say, bird flu, although they are undoubtedly extremely dangerous. Viruses, as you know, do not respond to antibiotic treatment anyway. But imagine what a catastrophe threatens mankind if antibiotics cease to help against diseases that have long been considered fatal - from tuberculosis to syphilis!
The average life expectancy in civilized countries is approaching 70 years, and somewhere (for example, in Japan) and exceeds this threshold. However, until recently - by historical standards - people could not even dream of such a longevity. A primitive man who reached 25 years old was considered a deep old man. In ancient Egypt, the average life expectancy was 22 years, in Rome - 24. In the Middle Ages, this figure was even lower - 21 years.
The bubonic plague (black death) pandemic that swept Asia and Europe in the 14th century killed at least 60 million people. In some regions, between a third and a half of the population died! The mortality rate for plague disease (depending on its form) was then 95-99%, and today, with the use of modern antibiotics, it is only 5-10%. But if the plague bacillus becomes immune to antibiotics, humanity can be destroyed in no time at all.
Indeed, in the Middle Ages, a person was of little mobility, and the journey from one country to another could last for months. Times have changed. In the morning, a person (who still does not have any symptoms of the disease) in Paris, in the evening already in Moscow. And in order to become infected with the plague, unlike, for example, Ebola, it does not require close and prolonged contact with the patient, it is very contagious. Therefore, the spread of the disease will go exponentially.
Magic Bullets
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British bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming worked as a physician in military hospitals in France during the First World War. Before his eyes, many even slightly wounded soldiers and officers were dying of gangrene, tetanus and sepsis. The antiseptics used then were not only ineffective, but sometimes even dangerous. Back in Britain, Fleming set about developing the "magic bullet" - a drug that would kill microorganisms without harming humans. After several years of experimentation, penicillin appeared.
The mortality rate among patients who were treated with antibiotics plummeted. But earlier, 2.5 times more people died from the consequences of minor wounds and diseases that always "accompanied" the army on campaigns (for example, typhoid and dysentery) than died on the battlefield!
In the 1940s, an arms race began among pharmaceutical companies. Every year, several fundamentally new types of antibiotics appeared, more and more specialized and intended mainly for the destruction of certain microorganisms. The mass of diseases that tormented humanity for centuries and whose victims were hundreds of millions of people were defeated. It seemed that the world was on the verge of a golden age. But it was in those years that a mine was laid for the future of mankind.
Do not heal, but cripple
While antibiotics were expensive in the beginning, they dropped significantly in mass production. Doctors began to prescribe them to patients, even when other means could be dispensed with. In the 1950s, every sixth prescription in Britain was for antibiotics. And in Australia, for example, amoxicillin has become the most popular medicine. Back then, people had not yet thought about the dangers of such thoughtless use of antibiotics.
But microorganisms, like any population, also fight for their existence. Some time passed, and they "realized" that they had a terrible enemy. Microorganisms began to mutate, adapting to new conditions. The first antibiotic-resistant microbes appeared in the 1950s. Humanity was forced to invent more and more powerful antibacterial drugs.
Modern antibiotics are many times stronger than their "ancestor" - penicillin. But at the same time, many drugs of the penicillin series are no longer effective - they do not cause any harm to the adapted microorganisms. The problem is growing like a snowball - scientists are already developing such powerful antibiotics that they sometimes not only cure, but also cripple the patient. Even after defeating the disease against which they were prescribed, such drugs do the body more harm than good.
On the edge of the abyss
Antibiotic resistance (resistance of a strain of pathogens to the action of one or more antibacterial drugs) manifested itself back in the 1950s, but only 10-15 years ago it became widespread. Resistant forms of microbes are detected all over the world and in any environment: in the human body, water bodies, soil, air …
As a result, pharmaceutical giants are forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop new generation antibiotics. But sooner or later they will not be able to climb the next peak - and then humanity will face a pandemic. People destroy themselves by taking antibiotics: after all, only microorganisms that are unstable to these drugs die as a result of taking them. This means that microbes that do not respond to antibiotic treatment have a selective advantage. Having got rid of the “competitors” who died when using antibacterial drugs, mutants multiply intensively.
So that it does not seem that we are talking about another "horror story", we will give specific numbers. One of the most common infections in the world is intestinal infections. Since 2006, the antibiotic resistance of its pathogen has increased from 1 to 5%. That is, every 20th case of intestinal infection (fortunately, not fatal) is no longer amenable to treatment! Klebsiella's resistance to antibiotics (a bacterium that also causes pneumonia) has grown to 12%.
If earlier pneumonia was treated with injections of ordinary penicillin, now every 10th patient is forced to take the latest antibiotics, and it is not a fact that they will help. Phthisiatricians are also sounding the alarm. 15% of tuberculosis patients do not respond to treatment. But the leader in antibiotic resistance has become acinobacteria (causing, for example, sepsis): 70% of them are resistant to most antibiotics.
Sexually transmitted diseases also did not stand aside. Even with "unpretentious" gonorrhea, doctors are forced to change standard treatment regimens for patients, taking into account the fact that many antibiotics do not help. We are not even talking about antibiotic resistance, but about the so-called multidrug resistance - the resistance of microorganisms to two or more antibacterial drugs. But we are talking about sluggish diseases that do not kill the patient for several days. What, for example, can a mutated plague do to humanity?
They are everywhere
However, humanity has driven itself into a corner not only because doctors have thoughtlessly prescribed (and continue to prescribe) antibacterial drugs for many years. Their use has acquired a colossal and absolutely unjustified scale. And along with them, the number of mutant microbes grows. As experts say: "Humanity would have a chance if only antibiotics were treated." But now literally everything around us is stuffed with them. Antibiotics are used in veterinary medicine and in the agricultural industry. Pigs, chickens, cows are stuffed with drugs so that they do not get sick.
So it turns out: I ate a pork cutlet, but actually took a dose of antibiotic. As a result, the microbes living in the human body received a "vaccination" from the drug, which may be used in future treatment. So, with a high percentage of probability, they mutated and became immune. In fact, thanks to the uncontrolled use of drugs in the food industry, humanity is losing the last effective antibiotics.
Not only microorganisms mutate, but also the human body itself. In recent years, in the USA (they pay quite a lot of attention to this problem), there have been cases of side effects of antibiotics that have not been registered earlier. - As a result of taking fairly harmless drugs, people develop hepatic or renal failure, the retina of the eye exfoliates. Apparently, the body simply rejects what it is already stuffed with to an extreme degree.
Some experts (while their voices are still not very audible) suggest equating the problem of antibiotic resistance with a nuclear threat. Sounds loud? No, this is a very real threat. If scientists at some point cannot invent a new generation of antibiotics or the body refuses to accept them, then the attack of mutant microbes will put an end to the future of humanity.
Evgeny IVANOV