In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered a bacteria destroying substance known as Penicillin, paving the way for antibiotics, which is a major landmark in the advancement of medical science.
It allowed for the perfection of treatment of bacterial infections which used to claim hundreds of thousands of lives before its accidental discovery and further development.
Since then countless lives have been saved, and today, many diseases that were once feared as life-threatening are easily cured. Some are even on the verge of extinction, leading to a higher life expectancy and a better life for us humans.
As with other advancements, antibiotics have proven to be a double edged sword and now we are on the verge of a potential pandemic that could claim millions of life.
The Rise of Superbugs
The ease with which antibiotics are available maybe a good thing for curing diseases but they have a side-effect too. As do all living beings, bacteria evolve into more advanced forms of themselves too and they do it rather quickly.
The widespread and unchecked use of antibiotics have led to the evolution of resistant bacteria on whom normal antibiotics have no effect. In some cases, bacteria have evolved so much that they are essentially superbugs, which are resistant to most if not all antibiotics.
In fact, in January of this year, it was reported that a woman had lost her life due to a superbug that was resistant to ALL kinds of antibiotics in the US. Though not the first time, such events serve as a warning that we need to change our ways.
If there was to be a superbug outbreak, millions would be killed each year causing a global health crisis.
This issue is so grave now, that the United Nations General Assembly held a meeting in September of last year to discuss the threats that superbugs pose and how we can deal with it.
Silver Lining
Even though the situation looks pretty dire, many scientists are optimistic that they will be able to solve this problem. Thanks to the ever advancing field of medical science, they believe that we will be able to create even more advance antibiotics to deal with the superbugs.
Scientists are also looking at innovative ways to deal with the situation. In fact, researchers at the Rockefeller University used anti-bacteria viruses and combined them with human antibodies to create molecules that are super efficient at killing bacteria.
Researchers at MIT have engineered a synthetic peptide derived from naturally occurring antimicrobial proteins which can kill even superbugs, by effectively destroying their outer membrane.
In the future, nanoparticles could be used to boost the natural defence of the body, swimming around and killing any sort of microbes including bacteria, virus, fungi, etc. Important research is being done on this by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, which could see the light of day soon.
Conclusion
In any case, we should all be very careful about using antibiotics and should only use them as a last resort. Even though we can develop capabilities to fight these bugs, you never know what sort of monster nature is capable of creating and wiping us all out!
If you want more information, regarding the rise of superbugs, I suggest you watch this video by "Kurzgesagt".
The first two images are taken from the video above by Kurzgesagt.