New forms of Antibiotics needed (quickly)

Bacteria have been here since the beginning, nipping at the heels of multicellular life and consuming it when it got the chance. Then, for a brief moment in history, humanity gained the upper hand. Fleming gave us Penicillin and within a couple of decades we developed antibiotics and exploited the bacteria's weakness and enjoyed near complete dominance over the ancient enemy. But the war was never won. The bacteria have fecundity on their side, and tiny little fleeting lifespans in which to produce many many generations and to leverage the inexorable force of evolution. And so we find ourselves near the end of our dominance, at least with antibiotics as we currently know them.

I wish the world was full of people who understood science and biology better and could see this threat looming, but I think most don't see it coming. I think most people are lost in the media blizzard of pseudo-science and bungled reporting to the point where they are unable to recognize the true threats from the candy news.

I was born in the 60's, so I don't remember a world without antibiotics. But I've heard the stories, and read the history, and it sounds pretty bad.

We've still got some time before this enemy rises again in its full rampaging splendor, but it's not a lot of time. Fleming gave us Penicillin in 1928 and we may not even make it a century before again watching helplessly as people die from infections and knowing that even the smallest of surgical procedures (wisdom tooth extraction for example) might have a 50% chance of being fatal.

I'm hopeful that humanity can get ahead of this. The place to start is for people to become aware, and to start talking about it, and to start asking politicians about it.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bacteria-resistant-last-resort-antibiotic-appears-us

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/