• Question: What are the environmental and health issues of antibiotic resistance ?

    Asked by marieescudie to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 18 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 549anta28, Amandine.
    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Antibiotic resistant bacteria spread round the environment, and this is a way they can be passed on to humans – this is particularly a problem where antibiotics are used for farming. Antibiotics can be used in factory farming so animals can be kept in bad conditions, overcrowded, but still not get sick and gain weight quickly – and factory farms cause lots of environmental issues.

      The health issues are that people get infections which cannot be treated or cured, and sadly sometimes they die because of this – I have spent the last few weeks reading through all the case notes of people in my hospital who died from antibiotic-resistant infections, and it is very sad because sometimes they could have been saved if the antibiotics had worked properly. A few infections are already resistant to every single antibiotic we have, such as totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, and multi-resistant gonorrhoea.

      If we don’t have antibiotics, then big areas of medicine which rely on antibiotics will stop working – like chemotherapy for cancer, where we rely on antibiotics to stop the patients getting an infection when their immune systems are damaged. This article gives a good overview: https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      There aren’t really environmental issues with antibiotics. Any complex chemical (like an antibiotic) requires a lot of energy and produces many waste products during synthesis/manufacture. If these are not disposed of correctly they can cause environmental problems. Also, resistant bacteria can sometimes be marginally more virulent (nasty), this can have a knock on effect in the wider environment.

      There are many major health issues with antibiotic resistance. If you have an operation, normally you are given antibiotics before and after to prevent an infection. If they stop working, simple operations become much more dangerous. Also, if you cut yourself, there is often the chance of a skin infection. If the bacteria infecting the wound are resistant, they may not be able to be effectively treated. In this way, a small scratch could be able to kill you. Also, there are many people who as part of their treatment of disease have repressed immune systems, they often rely on antibiotics to keep them alive. Transplant patients, cystic fibrosis sufferers, people with HIV, people with immune diseases, all of these people would be likely to die if antibiotics stop working!

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