The Threat of Antibiotic Resistance

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed a frightening report on the burden and threats posed by antibiotic overuse. Every year in the United States, 2 million people are infected and 23,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections.

Here is how antibiotic resistance happens:

Here is how antibiotic resistance spreads:

And not surprisingly, in states where there is more antibiotic use, there is also more antibiotic-resistant infections:

Most interestingly, perhaps, is that 70-80% of all antibiotics sold are used on healthy animals in factory farms to prevent infections in the unfathomably overcrowded and unsanitary conditions where the animals are raised. 30 million pounds of antibiotics are purchased each year, which is four times greater than that used to treat humans.

What can you do?

• Avoid all factory farmed products. Ideally, this means minimizing or eliminating animal products: red meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, and fish (farmed uses antibiotics and wild is full of other toxins).
• Limit antibiotic use. Use them on yourself and family if, and only if, you have a confirmed bacterial infection. Most physicians are more prudent with these prescriptions nowadays, but many people insist and persist at convincing healthcare professionals to prescribe them anyway.
• Take action against antibiotic overuse. Voice your concerns politically and vote with your dollar.