Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that by 2050, antibiotics as we know them will lose their effectiveness against bacteria. What leads to this obsolescence of antibiotics, and are there viable alternatives?

The Utility of Antibiotics:

In July 2022, an Indian minister staged a political demonstration by drinking water from the Ganges to demonstrate its purity. Hospitalized soon after, he was treated with antibiotics, thereby surviving the onslaught of millions of bacteria that had infested his body. However, by 2050, such a scenario might have proven fatal. While several antibiotic formulas have been discovered, pharmaceutical industries have grappled for over three decades to develop more potent antibiotics to counter increasingly resistant bacteria.

Mechanisms of Bacterial Adaptation to Antibiotics:

Bacteria possess mechanisms not only to vertically share genetic traits within their own lineage but also horizontally among different bacterial strains. Consequently, when a bacterium acquires a mutation enabling it to resist antibiotics, it can pass on this resistance to others. While some bacteria are beneficial to the body, aiding in digestion and other processes, antibiotics do not discriminate; they decimate both harmful and beneficial bacteria alike. Thus, while the body weakens, harmful bacteria thrive, revealing a stark irony.

Known Alternatives to Antibiotics:

During the Paris epidemic of 1917, Félix d’Hérelle pioneered a treatment to halt the spread of the disease, relying on bacteriophage viruses. Despite his intuitive grasp of their potential, Félix d’Hérelle faced skepticism, notably from Jules Bordet, the 1919 Nobel Prize laureate, and the American Medical Association (AMA). Frustrated by political opposition, Félix d’Hérelle sought refuge in the Soviet Union, where he continued his groundbreaking work on bacteriology. Thus, for a reason as banal as the greed of pharmaceutical groups, humanity has not been able to take full advantage of the alternative offered by bacteriophagy to treat bacterial diseases.

Conclusion

However, about what will happen by the 2050s, bacteriophagy would constitute a viable alternative to treatments for bacterial diseases. The technique is not lost. It is currently used in agriculture for seed treatment so let’s keep hope. Viruses may save us from bacteria.