Homework 01

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1

Superbug scenario: Antibiotic resistance will be ‘catastrophe’ onpar with terrorism

A

Antibiotic-resistant superbugs will push medical science back to the 19th century, with peopledying of minor infections says Britain’s top health official. Dame Sally Davies, chief medicalofficer for England, said action is urgently needed to fight antibiotic and antimicrobialresistance and that new drugs must be developed to treat new mutating infections. She warnedthat if nothing is done to reverse the situation Britain would face an apocalyptic scenario with“a health system not dissimilar from the 19th century.”

B

Two months ago Dame Davies warned British legislators that antibiotic resistance should beadded to the UK’s national risk register. The register was set up in 2008 to advise the publicand businesses on national emergencies that the UK could face in the next five years. Thehighest risks currently on the list include a catastrophic terrorist attack, a flu pandemic andcoastal flooding, as was seen during the 1952 North Sea flood, the last time a nationalemergency was called in the UK.

C

As bacterial infections evolve into ‘superbugs’ like MRSA, which are resistant to existingdrugs, more must be done to discover new antibiotics. Only a few antibiotics have beendiscovered in the last few decades. “Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If wedon’t act now any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and diebecause of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics, And routine operationslike hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection,”Davies told reporters as she published her report on infectious disease.

D

Untreatable superbugs are popping up all over the world. A superbug with a mutation knownas NDM 1, which was first detected in India, has now turned up in most other countries.There have also been cases of a totally drug-resistant form of tuberculosis and the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) said an untreatable form of gonorrhea was spreading round theworld. MRSA, one of the best known superbugs, is estimated to kill 19,000 people every yearin the US and a similar number in Europe, far more than HIV and AIDS.

E

Davies has called for better cooperation between the pharmaceutical and healthcare industriesin order to focus on developing new antibiotics as well as preserving the arsenal of existingones. She also called on governments to take the threat seriously and suggested the WHO andthe G8 encourage more innovation in the field of antibiotics. “Over the past two decades therehas been a discovery void around antibiotics, meaning diseases have evolved faster than thedrugs to treat them,” said Davies. Although a small number of new individual drugs are beingdeveloped, no new classes of antibiotics have been developed since 1987. The main reason,explains Davies, is that is there little money to be made in developing new courses ofantibiotics.

F

She added that more effort should be made by doctors to prescribe antibiotics only whenneeded and that hygiene should be improved in hospitals to make sure infections were kept toa minimum. Keith Ridge, the UK government’s chief pharmaceutical officer, said thatalthough the number of antibiotics prescribed in hospital had fallen, there still needed to betighter control of antibiotic prescriptions in GP’s surgeries. “We need new ways to killresistant bacteria or reduce their carriage of resistant genes. Novel approaches that might haveappeared unrealistic a few years ago need to be explored,” Professor Christopher Thomas,professor of molecular genetics at the University of Birmingham, told the Independent. TheWHO made drug resistance the focus of its 2011 World Health Day, warning the “world isheading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which many common infections will no longer havea cure and, once again, kill unabated.”

Homework 01

flavia@algumlugar.net (11) 3892-9353

2

EXERCISE 1. Use the sentences in the box to join the two parts of the sentences,completing the summary of each paragraph. The paragraphs are in order

more and more people will die restrict the use of antibioticsis needed to encourage moreinnovation in the field of

antibiotics

among the most terriblemenaces

are appearing and spreadingaround the world because of antibiotics

(A) bugs are getting more resistant …______________________________________________

(B) superbugs should be included … _______________________________________________

(C) if new antibiotics are not discovered … __________________________________________

(D) more and more superbugs … __________________________________________________

(E) a joint action, involving the WHO, pharmaceutical industries and governments, …

__________________________________________________________________________

(F) Hospitals must … ___________________________________________________________

EXERCISE 2: What is the meaning of the underlined words in the text? (in thecontext of the text)

developed

warned

advise

face

currently

evolve

threat

deadly

Untreatable

popping up

turned up

called for

in order to

called on

Over

void

meaning

courses

effort

kept

although

carriage

approaches

heading towards

no longer