The Director General of the world health Organistion has warned us that the resistance of disease causing micro-organism to antibiotics is increasing at an alarming rate. There is a risk that every antibiotic which has been developed will be rendered useless. If true, this might have enormous implications for the health of everyone in the world. It is possible that diseases such as Tuberculosis will be rendered incurable. A contributing factor to microbial resistance is the use of antibiotics in farming on an industrial scale and the inappropriate use of antibiotics by the medical profession.
This problem has implications for all of us. Antibiotics have made a major contribution to world health. They have also made a major contribution to the growth in the human population. We have come to rely upon antibiotics and our survival without them may now be imperilled.
Is it possible, now, that the growth in our population will be curtailed by the spread of untreatable diseases?
Urgent work is required to find new methods of controlling infectious disesase; perhaps by the use of Bacteriophages?
Our vulnerability to infectious diseases and our increasing inablity to control them points out that we are not immune to the the processes of nature. Despite all our hubris and cleverness, we are not completely able to protect ourselves from natural or man made catastrophes. We need to intervene in nature with the utmost care, intelligence and understanding, otherwise we could easily damage ourselves or even wipe ourselves out.
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