The Next Pandemic Is Already Here

The casualties of a global pandemic are now vivid to everyone, and many wished we could have acted earlier to stem the death toll. But another pandemic has already started. It’s not one that rips through countries in months. It’s a slower growing pandemic, yet it threatens to kill 10 million people a year by 2050. Even so, it has received little attention.

We’re talking about the global pandemic of antimicrobial resistance — a pandemic increasingly claiming the lives of patients on our hospital floors. Unlike pandemics caused by novel viruses, this one can be addressed through our prescribing routines and the purchasing decisions and food choices made on a societal level.