Compounding the cure: How our overzealous efforts to zap infections could be making animals — and humans — sicker

Experts are calling antimicrobial resistance the silent pandemic: Each year, AMR is responsible for more than a million deaths around the world. It’s a threat to our health that’s been exacerbated by the very medications used to treat it. This problem has been growing for decades, and healthcare practitioners have responded by developing new antibiotics. “And then,” says Dr. Scott Weese, a global expert in antimicrobial resistance, “we started running out of antibiotics.” To address the rise of drug-resistant pathogens, we need to examine how we use these medications to treat disease in both humans and animals, says Weese. The question is, how can we safeguard the life-saving drugs we have — while also protecting the health of all creatures on this planet?

Featured in this episode: 

Dr. Scott Weese is a veterinary internal medicine specialist, chief of infection control and director of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College. Weese is a member of the Global Leaders Group on antimicrobial resistance and has helped craft antimicrobial use guidelines for veterinarians in Canada. 

Further reading: 

• The global threat of antibiotic resistance
• At the UN, world leaders are negotiating the biggest health issue you’ve never heard of
• Three million child deaths linked to drug resistance, study shows
• Do I need that antibiotic?
• Veterinary medicine is key to overcoming antimicrobial resistance
• The link between pets, people and antimicrobial resistance
• Canada introduces new guidelines to tackle antimicrobial resistance

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