3,2,1: BLAST OFF!
Well, the day has finally come: the paperback of The Waiting Rooms has launched! Hurrah! I’m delighted, and not a little relieved that, despite the enormity of the challenges we’ve faced these past weeks, and continue to face, my first novel has found its way through the quarantine of lockdown to emerge in newly reopened bookstores.
Such a thing may seem trivial, and indeed it is, compared to the suffering endured by many during this pandemic. But sometimes, it is the simple pleasures that give us hope. I visited my local bookshop in Witney last week, and just being able to wander in, chat to the staff, and browse physical books, felt like such a treat.
With its portrayal of the advent and aftermath of an antibiotic crisis, I can’t promise that The Waiting Rooms will make easy reading right now: it won’t. But I can offer you a glimpse into an alternative world that shows the impacts of a different medical crisis on family life. And, whilst there are many parallels, this crisis hasn’t happened. Yet.
However, and I hate to say this, there is growing evidence that this crisis could come to pass. The Covid 19 pandemic is accelerating the spread of antimicrobial resistance. The sheer quantity of antibiotics being used to treat or prevent secondary bacterial infections is colossal. Some of these prescriptions are unnecessary: the antibiotics are of no use against the virus itself, they should only be administered if there is clinical evidence of a bacterial co-infection. This ‘just-in-case’ consumption will only exacerbate the already worrying levels of resistance to many drugs.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased use of antibiotics, which ultimately will lead to higher bacterial resistance rates that will impact the burden of disease and deaths during the pandemic and beyond.”
And, just in case you thought I was done, there’s another reason for concern.
This one has nothing to do with the pandemic.
It’s what we put on our fork.
Just as we’ve learned the hard way that disease can pass from animals to humans, so too can antibiotic resistance. And recent research has shown that the transfer of resistance from farmed animal meat to humans, is much higher than originally thought. It may sound crazy, but eating the wrong burger could have serious long term consequences for your health.
Until now, the UK has been protected from the dangers of excessive antibiotic use in animals by rigorous EU policies on farming. But the looming prospect of a no-deal Brexit means UK consumers might soon be facing a choice between price and health in their shopping baskets.
The UK imports a heck of a lot of meat and dairy, most of which, currently, comes from the EU. But, as the UK government paves the way for trade deals and tariff-cuts in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the prospect of food imports from countries with very different standards to our own looks ever more likely.
British farmers have halved their use of antibiotics for routine preventative measures in livestock over the past 4 years. This is in line with the EU’s move to implement a total ban on all routine use of antibiotics in farming by 2022.
American farmers, on the other hand, have no such aims or restrictions. They use five times as many antibiotics as UK farmers do, and that amount is rising. What’s more, the US government strongly opposes any regulation or restriction of drug use in farming, despite strong scientific evidence of the consequences.
Sadly, the UK government is sitting on the fence when it comes to copying EU policy and committing to a total ban. Particularly as it’s flirting with a US trade deal, whose lobbyists are extremely vocal. Which could mean we end up lowering food standards and letting meat imports into our country that may be cheaper than EU products, but which are stuffed with antibiotics even though we know the inherent dangers.
The threat that antimicrobial resistance poses must, surely, win the day.
Otherwise, what was the point of commissioning a report back in 2014 which showed that 10 million people could be dying each year, globally, from antibiotic-resistant infections by 2050, unless we take action?
And what is the point of limiting the prescriptions of antibiotics in hospitals, care homes and surgeries, to prevent the spread of resistance, if all we are going to do is consume more resistant bacteria in our food?
What’s required here is a bit of joined-up thinking. And backbone.
I pray we can still manage both.
