Opinion: Listen: Antibiotic experts on the threat of antimicrobial resistant superbugs
This week’s “First Opinion Podcast” takes a look at antimicrobial resistance, a topic that should be worrying everyone, but isn’t. I talk with David Hyun and Rachel Zetts, both with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ antibiotic resistance project, about their recent First Opinion, “Many hospitalized Covid-19 patients are given antibiotics. That’s a problem.”
Antimicrobial resistance — the process by which bacteria, fungi, and other microbes become immune to the effects of drugs designed to kill them — happens every time someone takes an antibiotic or other anti-infective drug. These drug-resistant organisms become the “superbugs” you may have heard about. Although Covid-19 may be contributing to the problem, it will be with us long after the pandemic has passed. The conversation covered how antimicrobial resistance occurs, how it currently affects millions of people a year, and how to fight it.
