A recent study projects that deaths around the world due to infections that are resistant to existing antibiotics could increase nearly 70 percent by 2050. These antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are fueled by what is known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics as well as over-sanitization efforts. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called AMR “one of the top global public health and development threats.” The study published in The Lancet last month states that from 2025 to 2050, the world could see more than 39 million deaths directly attributed to AMR.1
Research from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that nearly one in three antibiotics prescribed at outpatient facilities is unnecessary. Antibiotics are ineffective against viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 or the flu. Earlier this year, the WHO presented findings of “extensive overuse” of antibiotics during the peak years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its data suggested that approximately 75 percent of patients were treated with antibiotics “just in case”, despite only eight percent of patients hospitalized with COVID having bacterial co-infections.2
Doctors Not Following Antibiotic Prescription Rules
Another study, which was published by Clinical Infectious Diseases in April 2024 examining the antibiotic prescribing behavior of doctors treating outpatients in the US. between 2017 and 2023, found that inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions temporarily decreased in March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic but then increased over time.3 Researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M), Northwestern University, and the Boston Medical Center reported that overall, 60.6 million antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed nationwide during the five-year study period and about 27 percent of the conditions for which antibiotics were prescribed did not justify the doctors’ antibiotic prescriptions.4
The lead author, pediatrician Kao-Ping Chua, MD, was quoted as stating:
Our findings highlight the continued importance of quality improvement initiatives focused on preventing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial resistance, which kills 48,000 Americans per year.4
Antibiotic Prescribing Largely Driven by Patient Satisfaction
According to a medical doctor writing for Pew Trusts, inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics is not driven by data. Reasons include patient satisfaction, time constraints, decision fatigue, and uncertain diagnoses.5
A JAMA Internal Medicine study analyzed over 8,000 appointments for patients with respiratory tract infections like the common cold. Authors of the study found that patients rated themselves happiest with their doctor’s visit when they received an antibiotic after seeking care, whether or not an antibiotic was an effective treatment for the illness.6
“It is very problematic because it creates an incentive for physicians to do things that are not medically necessary in order to drive up their satisfaction ratings,” stated Kathryn Martinez, PhD, MPH, a Cleveland Clinic internal medicine researcher.6
Antibiotics Can Be Drivers of Disease and Illness
In addition to increasing morbidity and mortality rates due to antibiotic resistance, antibiotics can cause unintended side effects. While antibiotics are lifesaving when used selectively, researchers maintain that inappropriate use of antibiotics can cause more harm than good by damaging the gut barrier and killing the good bacteria that helps our immune system function normally. A study published in September 2024 in Science found that even short-term antibiotic treatment in mice led to breakdown of the mucus barrier in the colon, causing penetration of bacteria into the mucus layer and inflammation in the intestine.
The study authors stated that the success of antibiotics over the past century and praising them as “miracle drugs” have led to their overuse in both agriculture and medicine. They cite that in addition to AMR, several chronic diseases such as diabetes, growth defects, and chronic inflammation have been linked in multiple studies to antibiotic use. According to the authors:
As antibiotics target microbes directly, it is widely assumed that the effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiota are the main drivers of disease.7
FDA Allows for Overuse of Antibiotics in Meat and Fish Industries
Another contributing source of antibiotic exposure is antibiotics given to cattle, pigs, and chicken raised for food consumption. Approximately two-thirds of antibiotics considered “medically important” sold in the United States go to meat production. These antibiotics are routinely fed to animals that aren’t even sick as a “preventative” approach that makes the meat cheaper. While the chicken industry is phasing out routine antibiotic use, the antibiotic use by the beef and pork producers reportedly is on the rise. Despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) awareness of the problem, the agency has not stepped up effective efforts to protect the public health given the widespread public health crisis of antibiotic resistant microbes.8
The FDA has also approved five different antibiotics for use in aquaculture or farmed fish hatcheries. Researchers found that a “massive and inappropriate use” of antibiotics to prevent disease in farmed fish only fueled the development of resistant bacteria potentially harming humans.9
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Click here to view References:1 Howard J. Superbug crisis could get worse, killing nearly 40 million people by 2050, study estimates. CNN Health Sept. 20, 2024.
2 Hobley N. WHO reports significant overuse of antibiotics to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections. The Vaccine Reaction May 6, 2024.
3 Chua KP, Fischer MA et al. Changes in the Appropriateness of US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing After the COVID-19 Outbreak: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of 2017–2021 Data. Clin Infect Dis 2024; 79(2): 312-320.
4 McClure P. Your doctor is prescribing antibiotics that won’t help – and may harm. News Atlas Apr. 23, 2024.
5 Hyun D. Why doctors prescribe antibiotics— even when they shouldn’t. Pew Trusts June 20, 2017.
6 Cohen R. Patients give doctors high marks for prescribing antibiotics for common sniffles. NPR Oct. 3, 2018.
7 Sawaed J. Antibiotics damage the colonic mucus barrier in a microbiota-independent manner. Science Advances Sept. 11, 2024.
8 Held L. The FDA is still not tracking how farms use antibiotics. Civil Eats Nov. 8, 2023.
9 Arellano N. Antibiotic use in fish farms poses threats to humans study says. Aqualculture North America May 6, 2020.
One Response
This article was good and accurate. But the real problem is the modeling of the medical industrial complex itself. It is quite often a fireable offense, outright illegal, or considered malpractice for doctors practicing in big hospitals to simply tell you to take colloidal silver, more vitamins and minerals, stop eating junk processed foods, or even to suggest you consume less pharmasuetical products rather then more. Behind the scenes these same corporations that provide all these ‘cures’ also works to limit if not outright deny your access to every day safe supplements and treatments. They purchase meaningful technology and real cures, then shelve them in order to keep the gravy train going. If the company heads can’t take things legally they coerce and intimidate anyone whom goes against their for profit systems. Nothing and nobody is off limits, just ask the former doctors and practitioners whom left the system. They will never actually find cures under the current model, because it’s simply too profitable to always have the need and justification for a never ending infinite stream of research and application funding.
When you step into that hospital or clinic you become a dollar sign on a conveyor belt. The doctors and pa’s have fifteen minutes to diagnose, prescribe, then kick you down the line as they move on to the next source of income revenue, aka the next patient in line. The researchers know this; ‘ patient satisfaction, time constraints, decision fatigue, and uncertain diagnoses’. That’s putting it lightly for sure… What the supposed professionals are prohibited from suggesting is that the sheer scale and monopolized presence of ‘medicine’ and the insurers and corporations whom run the show, are the true reason we have issues like ineffective harmful medicines, so many product recalls, over use of antibiotics, limitations on best personalized care practices. They’re not going to let something as trivial as real world evidence get in the way of ongoing ever building profit margins. So we get warnings and forecasts that in the future we’ll now all have to deal with super bugs instead. See how this works yet? Central planning never works.