Author: Erin Elizabeth

Antibiotics revolutionized medicine when they were first introduced in the 1940’s, saving people from former death sentences such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. There’s no way of knowing how many lives have been spared over the years, but now, due to widespread misuse in the form of over-prescribing, it appears that humans have become their own worst enemy. We’ve used antibiotics so freely, some bacteria have mutated into so-called “superbugs.” They’ve become resistant to the very drugs designed to kill them. A study commissioned by the British government estimates that by 2050, 10 million people worldwide could die each year from antibiotic resistant bacteria. That’s more than currently die from cancer. So now, the drug-resistant bacteria are becoming nearly impossible to treat and doctors know that antibiotics they commonly used 10 years ago are no longer effective. Each time we take an antibiotic, bacteria can develop the same kind of resistance in our bodies, which is why the overuse of the drugs is so dangerous. Americans are among the highest consumers of antibiotics in the world. More than 250 million prescriptions are written every year. One-third of them unnecessary, according to the centers for disease control. And in India – and many other developing countries – antibiotic use is on the rise and you can often buy the drugs over the counter, no prescription required.   The problem becomes even...