“There are several aspects to the problem of antibiotic resistance. It’s very important to have highly specific targets, which kill the particular bacterium that’s causing the disease rather than using a spectrum of antibiotics that should only be used as a last resort when you don’t know what the disease is caused by and you don’t have time.
But there’s a larger problem—the problem of resistance is also due to an abuse of antibiotics.
Many people will go to a doctor and demand an antibiotic when they have a cold or a flu, for which these antibacterial compounds are useless. In many countries it is possible to buy antibiotics over the counter. Often, if people are poor, they will not take the full dose. In addition to also prescribing antibiotics for the flu the West uses antibiotics in feed to fatten up the cattle. That’s an abuse of antibiotics. This leads to the spread of resistant strains, rendering current antibiotics useless if resistance spreads too much.
In countries like India people will give you antibiotics prophylactically, as a way to prevent infection. This should only be done in very extreme cases because it’s again spreading resistance.
People now move all over the world, so if resistance emerges in one place it can very quickly spread to other places. So it needs a concerted attack… It is a broad social problem.”