From the moment people discovered how to use penicillin, the first antibiotic, resistance has been a problem. Bacteria may be small, but they are not simple organisms and they have been fighting for survival for billions of years. Many bacteria have developed the tools they need to evade the effects of antibiotic treatments, and they can trade these weapons with other bacteria as they swap genetic material.
Bacterial infections aren’t new to humanity, and for more than two decades world health leaders have urgently warned about the threat of antibiotic resistance. Dr. Otto Cars is one of them. He is a senior professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University in Sweden and the founder and senior adviser to ReAct – Action on Antibiotic Resistance.
In this episode of One World, One Health, Dr. Cars says he has hope for turning around the impending dystopia of a world without antibiotics.
Listen as Dr. Cars outlines the history of the fight against antibiotic resistance, and what he hopes its future might be.
Learn more about the struggle to control drug-resistant bacteria, viruses, and fungi in some of our other episodes. We’ve spoken with experts about how vaccines can help prevent the spread of drug-resistant germs, about tracking superbugs in sewage, and the surprising rise of drug-resistant fungi. Experts in drug design have talked to us about the search for new and better antibiotics and how these little organisms are winning an arms race against us. Filmmakers have told us about how storytelling can help people understand the threat while global health specialists explained that good stewardship can keep the antibiotics we have working as they should. We’ve even investigated superbug mysteries, like the case of the killer eyedrops.