Project Syndicate: Using Antibiotics Wisely
Jim O’Neill, commercial secretary to the U.K. Treasury and chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance

“…According to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, which I chair, drug-resistant infections kill at least 700,000 people every year. By 2050, if nothing is done to address the problem, some 10 million people a year could be dying from maladies that were once treatable. … Improving people’s understanding of the problem will be crucial to reversing this trend. … The cost of a global effort to raise awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance would be minuscule compared to the amount being spent to develop new drugs and technologies, which in any case will take years to become available. Countries should urgently put in place educational campaigns and begin to change behaviors. Together, we can break our bad antibiotic habits” (9/2).