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DYK: Drug-resistant superbugs are as a big of a threat to the human population as climate change. [1]
In 1928, Alexander Fleming, discovered penicilin, the first true antibiotic. [2] Since then, doctors have prescribed antibiotics to patients to treat infections that were caused by bacteria. Until now, infections such as pneumonia were considered straightforward to treat – a course of antibiotics, and you would usually be on your way back to health.
70 years of consuming antibiotics, as well as over-prescription of antibiotics to patients to treat infectious diseases, have created an antimicrobial resistance [3], which begs the question – how can you fight an infection when antibiotics are no longer effective?
In 2016, 490,000 people developed multi-drug resistant tuberculosis globally, and drug resistance is starting to complicate the fight against HIV and malaria. Microorganisms are changing to adapt to antimicrobial drugs, and develop antimicrobial resistance, also referred to as ‘superbugs’. [4]
Join JLABS Boston on December 9th to learn from the experts on how antimicrobial resistance is threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases, the implications on our healthcare system, and how companies in this space are working to create future treatments.