Strengthening our motivation: Superbugs and antibiotic resistance crisis

Strengthening our motivation: Superbugs and antibiotic resistance crisis

Vegan Society of Canada News

July 17th 2018

In our series aimed at strengthening our motivation we will now take a closer look at the antibiotics crisis. It may not seem like it but we are on the verge of being thrown back to the dark ages of medicine. According to the World Health Organization

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today

In addition, according to a widely accepted report released in 2016 already 700 000 people die per year due to antibiotic resistant bacteria and if nothing is done by 2050 more people will die of antibiotic resistance bacteria than cancer and it will cost the world about 100 trillion USD in lost output. However, death might be the least of our worries since all aspect of modern medicine are at risk. England's Chief Medical Officer write

Rarely has modern medicine faced such a grave threat. Without antibiotics, treatments from minor surgery to major transplants could become impossible, and health-care costs are likely to spiral as we resort to newer, more expensive antibiotics and sustain longer hospital admissions.

Here are the 7 recommendation of the report to reduce demand

• A massive global public awareness campaign
• Improve hygiene and prevent the spread of infection
• Reduce unnecessary use of antimicrobials in agriculture and their dissemination into the environment
• Improve global surveillance of drug resistance and antimicrobial consumption in humans and animals
• Promote new, rapid diagnostics to cut unnecessary use of antibiotics
• Promote development and use of vaccines and alternatives
• Improve the numbers, pay and recognition of people working in infectious disease

Out of those 7 we can easily affect 2 of them: The first one by not taking antibiotic unnecessarily and spreading the information to others and the 3rd one by going vegan. Of course the author of the report does not go that far, but we connect the dot and do advocate for people going vegan. The dots the author left unconnected are

The quantity of antibiotics used in livestock is vast. In the US, for example, of the antibiotics defined as medically important for humans by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), over 70 percent (by weight) are sold for use in animals

The majority of scientists see this as a threat to human health, given that wide-scale use of antibiotics encourages the development of resistance, which can spread to affect humans and animals alike

Now if antibiotic resistance would be the only thing going vegan would help we may agree with the author and suggest other alternatives. However, when we look at the big picture and connect all the dot of climate change, health, antibiotic resistance, pollution, fresh water shortage, cruelty, torture, etc… It is hard to come to any other conclusion than veganism is a simple solution which goes a long way to address all these issues. Instead authors of various papers in these topics suggest solution that address only their specific issue instead of looking at a global solution to address many problems that everyone can do today without the need for government or corporate intervention.

Now that we have dealt with the public awareness aspect let's take care of the 3rd recommendation. Why wait any longer? Go vegan today. Join one of our local community in your area or contact us for help on how to get started.