The Short: Antibiotics (and all antimicrobials) are amazing drugs that have transformed medicine and continue to save millions of lives and prevent serious illness each year. As a precious resource, we need to keep antibiotics working for those patients who really need them, who have no choice in using them (see False Peak and Fight to Breathe).

The Long: Antibiotics can be very effective drugs, reducing illness and saving lives, but they are victims of their own success, because the more antibiotics are used then the greater the chance the bacteria that they target will develop resistance.

Penicillin was the first antibiotic discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming and scaled up for mass production by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1945.1

So began the so-called golden era of antibiotics that last for around 20 years. After this there were many more natural antibiotics discovered followed by synthetic ones. Oblivious to the potential harms of resistance, many people in the 20th century considered them ‘cure-all’ drugs. Some people still consider antibiotics in this way.

But the more we use antibiotics for infections that don’t necessarily need them – usually non-serious, self-resolving minor infections, often viral coughs, colds, earaches and sore throats (antibiotics don’t work on viruses, only on bacteria) – then the more likely that bacteria living in and on our bodies or in our surroundings will develop resistance, and the more likely the drugs won’t work when we really need them to.

So, the actions of everyone in their choice to use antibiotics or not, drives the development of resistance and the availability of drugs that work.

And because drug resistance is a relevant threat to everyone – not just people who use antibiotics frequently – we all need to think seriously about how antibiotics and AMR fit into our lives.2

References:
1. Ligon BL. Sir Howard Walter Florey–the force behind the development of penicillin. Semin Pediatr Infect Dis. 2004 Apr;15(2):109-14. doi: 10.1053/j.spid.2004.04.001. PMID: 15185195.
2. https://antibioticguardian.com/keep-antibiotics-working/