Are you ready for a world without antibiotics?

[Outright Villainy]

Wonderful. So on top of an increasing percentage of autoimmune diseases in industrial nations (due to what I can only describe as antibacterial carpet bombing) we've finally reached the point of becoming resistant to antibiotics? Dear Lord, am I glad to be in the care of a doctor who doesn't just toss a batch of penicillin my way at the slightest boo-boo. Antibiotics are supposed to be applied only in extreme circumstances, goddammit!

Worse than that it seems; it's not antibiotics not doing anything for us, it's their prevalent use which forced new bacteria to adapt and circumvent it. Unless you can retroactively go back in time and force everyone to use it as carefully as you, we're all borked in the near future.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I'm not too worried. Humans are smart, they'll find another way to treat people. Plus, once we have nanobots, pretty much all diseases will become curable, so yeah...

 

[oranger]

Makes me glad I live in Canada...its too damn cold here for anything seriously airborne.
And when it isn't you can just stay indoors.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I'm not too worried. Humans are smart, they'll find another way to treat people. Plus, once we have nanobots, pretty much all diseases will become curable, so yeah...

Nanobots, apparently cheap.

Although they might be, once you learn how they make computer chips things get a bit skewed.

I'm just guessing they'll be a wide spread disease killer. Since you know, they're nanobots, they're small...you can make a lot of them.

 

[Spacewolf]

From what ive heard pennacillin is becomeing more effective again though so its quite possible that we will just end up going in a circle.

 

[TylerC]

Maybe if people weren't using them at any sign of any illness, and they stop using that fucking hand sanitizer every two minutes we wouldn't be in this mess just yet.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

are you ready for a world without antibiotics...
are you ready to die at 50?

 

[LightOfDarkness]

This is pretty scary stuff. But without the Cold War, we would be so far ahead! It's a little known fact that those pesky Ruskies were working on developing new bacteria to fight current. So instead of using antibiotics, itn would actually just be infecting a person with a new illness that has been geneticaly 'bred' to fight off this new disease. Yeah, all research into this was destroyed because they didn't want the Americans to find it and steal it from them, therefore gaining an advantage over them.

In Soviet Russia, bacteria heals you!

I was also thinking about these. Bacteriophages, they're called. With the recent advances in bioengineering, i can even see the possibility of creating special bacteria from scratch to do our bidding! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Then, there are always nanobots.

They already have "created" life.

They took a bacteria, hollowed out the genetic material, and replaced it with genetic material. Reprogramming it and esentially creating life. The important part is reprogramming it, so bacteria could be reprogrammed to fight bacteria cells then die off quickly after the threat has been eradicated.

 

[ultimateownage]

I'm hoping we make super micro robots in time. We can use them to fight the bacteria! Until they also turn on us.

But when they turn on us we can just make micro Neo's to take care of them.

Wait, what if they develop Smiths? OH SHI-

I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.

Oh, then we can just use smith has the cure then, if he is apparently a cure to viruses. Which is ironic because he goes on to gain the characteristics of a virus in the sequels.

O.T. I'm sure we'll find an answer to this once all the Americans realise there's a problem and try to do something about it. We're still waiting for them to notice Extinction, pollution, fuel sources running out, and global warming. We can add this to the list of stuff they aren't noticing.

 

[Karlaxx]

Seeing as I would have died within a month of being born without modern antibiotics...
No. I like my pink bubblegum medicine, thank you.

 

[Danny Ocean]

O.T. I'm sure we'll find an answer to this once all the Americans realise there's a problem and try to do something about it. We're still waiting for them to notice Extinction, pollution, fuel sources running out, and global warming. We can add this to the list of stuff they aren't noticing.

They notice, they just don't do anything about it.

Seeing as I would have died within a month of being born without modern antibiotics...
No. I like my pink bubblegum medicine, thank you.

That's the problem though- there won't be a choice.

 

[Ithera]

I smell a disaster, but one that can surely be averted should the major medical companies put a little need before greed.

Can you put a price tag on human suffering and possible extinction? Join me in 2020 and let's find out together.

 

[tsb247]

I've been saying it for years.

Antibiotic soap will be the death of us all!

 

[ultimateownage]

No not at all, by the time its a problem I will be dead so what do I care?

And this line of thought, my friend, is exactly why we still have so many problems in today's society. People like you are the reason for Pollution, Global Warming, Dwindling Natural Resources and now this. Grow up and take some responsibility for your actions.

*EDIT*

O.T. I'm sure we'll find an answer to this once all the Americans realise there's a problem and try to do something about it. We're still waiting for them to notice Extinction, pollution, fuel sources running out, and global warming. We can add this to the list of stuff they aren't noticing.

They notice, they just don't do anything about it.

Well wait for them to notice it's a big enough problem for them to get of their arses and do shit about it.

 

[Icehearted]

This is why I go out of my way to avoid antibacterial soap, and I've gotten most folks I know to do the same. Researchers and JAMA both said this was a bad idea, along with the fact that we now have plenty of common use solutions with hand sanitizers (which work completely differently), and regular soap has always worked just fine. If using antibacterial makes you somehow feel cleaner, I defy you to explain why. As I know it, all you're doing is weeding out the weaker germs, sort of like 19th century Darwinism in your hands.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Not really. Considering most diseases are just a different strain of the same bacterium/virus. If you have encountered the less deadly incarnation of it then your immune system is far more likely to have a recognised T-cell that can just adapt to battle the new threat. Also an immune system that is used to having to find it's own counter methods usually works faster whilst trying to combat a totally new disease. As it's not reliant on antibiotics to do most of the work.

Antibi's are a last line of defence really. What you really want is vaccinations. They just boosts your natural immune system by introducing different strains of virus' and bacteria you're not likely to have come into contact with in any shape or form. So there is no risk of them becoming immune to antibiotics and creating a super strain.

Actually every vaccination carries the risk of becoming a full blown, drug resistant strain of what its attempting to prevent.

There is no "building up." Yes, an immune system that is constantly challenged will be more effective than one that isn't. But only against minor threats. Then, if thats all it took, disease would claim zero lives in third world countries. But the reality is things like tuberculosis and polio, diseases that don't exist in the first world, are rampant in the third world.

Naturopathy (what you're basically talking about) is a nice idea. "Your immune system is weak because you have poor nutrition or you're not getting enough exercise or you're not encountering sufficient diseases." But against diseases with a mortality rate, all the walking and organic foods in the world aren't going to help.

 

[Uncreation]

Now this is actually scary, not like all those crappy apocalypse scenarios. 2012 my pale, skinny ass! This is something we should actually be worried about.

 

[anian]

When I was around 5ish, I a Streptococcal infection 3 times, so that's the first real time I remember taking serious antibiotics...and in the butt to add to the pain.

Yeah, they're being overused, I routing for nanobots as the next big soultion, doing the same - destroying bacterial's cell walls...mainly cause I like saying "nanobots."

How does an individual not using antibiotics make you better off than the rest of the population? If the bacteria evolve then you're f-ed same as the rest of us.

People as a species have survived before the penicilin and the rest, before translapnts, before sanitations, before soap. Besides, we'll always have aspirins...unless we cut down all the trees.

Stay healthy!