The world is ending, but then it always is. There’s always an impending threat of global catastrophe or some sort of ancient prophesy coming to pass, the world ending is rather a fact of life. Which is perhaps the strangest phrase I’ve ever written but it’s true. We’re all so used to these doomsday predictions that it’s become very easy to ignore them and then live through them. I’m early into my second decade and I’ve lived through a lot of supposed apocalypses. Y2K in 2000, the Mayan prophesy of 2012, the bird flu epidemic, the swine flu epidemic and so many others. If there’s one defining factor of humanity it’s our ability to keep going regardless, we’re astounding at getting used to things and allowing them to become the norm.
Sadly this latest prediction isn’t fear mongering or the predictions of a long dead civilisation; it’s a cry for much needed attention. Our medical systems rely on antibiotics to cure most forms of infection and illness which is all well and good until the bacteria and bugs evolve to be resistant to those antibiotics. In the past we’ve simply developed more potent treatments, nastier and more powerful antibiotics.
Unfortunately, nature is a tenacious thing and it always finds a way to bounce back and survive. The more powerful our treatments become, the more resistant the illnesses become. Soon we won’t have anything left to treat them with, our quiver of medical treatments will be empty and we’ll be thrown almost 100 years backwards in terms of medicine.
It’s been estimated by a top British medical authority that we’ve got 20 years until we can’t even treat a simple infection. Antibiotic resistant superbugs already exist and illnesses like gonorrhoea have only one effective treatment remaining and no new ones on the horizon. All it’s going to take is a small evolution and we won’t be able to touch it medically.
Medical professionals have been warning that this sort of thing was going to happen since the 70’s but as it was so far off it was largely ignored. Now, as the threat looms ever higher it’s looking like we’re less and less prepared. Phage technology offers a possible escape but there’ not enough money invested in it to come to the rescue in the time left.
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