Antibiotics become less effective

Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections and are an essential part of today’s healthcare. 

While it is a natural process that bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics - human actions, such as inappropriate prescribing and misusing prescriptions, can accelerate this process. Many types of bacteria are already showing resistance to medications, and resistant strains can spread through hospitals increasing mortality rates and length of stay.

Contributing trends and developments

Inappropriate prescribing, for example unnecessarily using broad-spectrum antibiotics, could continue or even increase. Without sufficient information, patients may continue to misuse prescriptions by skipping doses, stopping the course early, or saving antibiotics for later use/sharing with others.

New resistant bacteria may emerge in the UK or abroad, or known existing resistant strains could spread within services or even across international boundaries. The development of new antibiotics may not be able to keep up with the development and spread of resistant strains

Potential future situation

It is plausible that bacteria will become even more resistant to antibiotics, and similarly viruses become immune to antivirals and parasites to drugs like antimalarial medications. Organisms or infections are able to survive medicines aimed at destroying them, thus creating a situation where routine operations and treatments become more complex or potentially more deadly as the ability to fight infection is lost. The cost of healthcare may increase as more expensive medications and treatments must be used and lengths of stay in hospital increases.