Do look out for Prof Laura Piddock and Antibiotic Action on Sky and BBC News today following a media frenzy after the Independent’s page one splash warning about the “unthinkable scenario of untreatable infections.” It follows a parliamentary launch and petition delivery last week to 10 Downing Street.
The story also featured today’s Daily Mail, saying that the demise of antibacterial drug discovery by large pharmaceutical companies – deterred by poor profits and red tape – has already gone unnoticed, but will lead to untreatable infections.
I have also had a call from another national paper and an international paper and expect more media interest on this issue, an issue which could one day affect all our lives, and that of our loved ones.
Antibiotic Action is urging government to accelerate the licensing of new antibiotics and its petition now has more than 5,000 signatures, mainly from clinicians, researchers and scientists. Please sign it too if you care about our future health provision as a lack of modern antibiotics could adversely affect treatments which we take for granted today, including chemotherapy and joint replacements.
I saw that the subject of antibiotic resistance was the lead story in the Indy. It is an extremely important issue which must be addressed and we cannot rely on pharmaceutical firms to do the research, not while there is a slightly improved male potency drug to be developed – ie, no profit.
If we don’t act now we will be back to using lunar caustic etc to treat infections