AMR

Let's get into the business of today🌚

The Sweating Sickness, The Bubonic Plague Recurrence, The Syphilis Endemic, the death rate in the 16th Century was extremely high compared to modern standards. Primarily defined by high infant mortality, poor sanitation, and frequent endemic diseases and famine.

Roughly 25% of children died before their first birthday, and as many as 50% did not survive to age ten. At birth, the average life expectancy was often barely 30 years.

Childbirth was a significant cause of death for women. Estimates suggest a maternal mortality rate of roughly 24 to 29 deaths per 1000 baptisms in some regions.

It's also worthy to note that there was a mass divide based on wealth. While the average person struggled to reach 30, male English aristocrats between 1500 and 1550 had a life expectancy of 71 years, demonstrating how much nutrition and living conditions influenced survival...

Then came The Golden Age Timeline 🌚🔥

• 1928: Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin, the first natural antibiotic, though he could not yet mass-produce it.

• 1932: Gerhard Domagk develops Prontosil, the first commercially available sulfonamide (sulfa drug).

• 1940: Howard Florey and Ernst Chain successfully purify penicillin for use in human trials.

• 1943: Streptomycin was discovered, providing the first effective treatment for tuberculosis (TB).

• 1944: Mass production of penicillin begins, drastically reducing infection deaths for soldiers in WWII.

• 1945: Penicillin becomes available to the general public, marking the true start of the antibiotic era.

• 1948: Chlortetracycline (the first tetracycline) is discovered, providing the first "broad-spectrum" antibiotic.

• 1940s–1960s: The "Golden Age" peak occurs, where most of the antibiotic classes we use today (like macrolides and glycopeptides) are discovered.

The summary of all this; is that the discovery and mass production of antibiotics triggered one of the most dramatic shifts in human history, specifically by crashing the death rates from common infections that had plagued humanity for centuries.

The causes of death shifted from bacterial infections to more chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer.

Today, the average global death rate is roughly 0.78%, a fraction of what was normally seen in the 1500s and the 1600s.

The global life expectancy at birth has recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic shock and is now estimated at approximately 73.3 to 73.8 years 🌚😊✨

It is estimated that modern medicine (antibiotics, vaccines, surgery, etc) adds roughly 20 years to the average human lifespan compared to the pre-antibiotics 1900s.

But you see, that could change, for the worse...

Total deaths in a day could rise to 8.22 million in a year by 2050. Experts warn that a total failure of antibiotics could see global life expectancy drop back to the 50s, as minor surgeries and common injuries may now become lethal.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder or even IMPOSSIBLE to treat.

If AMR continues unchecked, it can potentially reverse decades of medical progress. It is projected to cause the global economy between $1 trillion and $3.8 trillion dollars in GDP losses annually by 2030.

Now, what can people like you and I do to prevent this....

1. Finish the Prescription!!!!! : Even if you feel better, stopping early leaves the strongest bacteria alive to multiply and become resistant.

2. Stop pressuring your doctors to give you antibiotics : They simply do not work on viruses (e.g cold). Using antibiotics for just anything can lead to MASSIVE over-prescriptions.

3. Simple hand washing, vaccination and good hygiene can even prevent these infections from coming in the first place. You can also wash your vegetables very well and cook stuff like your meat thoroughly.

4. Researchers too can use the Phage Therapy, using viruses (bacteriophages) that specifically hunt and kill bacteria.

5. Lastly 🌚, your government can also ban agricultural misuse. Currently, more antibiotics are given to healthy farm animals than to sick humans 😭😭.

Using antibiotics to promote growth in livestock should be curtailed. And also, rapid laboratory tests should be encouraged too.

We are done for today 🤭😝🤙😂✨