In 2014, the World Health Organisation reported that drug resistance — especially resistance to antibiotics — is a growing threat to human health, food security, and “the achievements of modern medicine”. Drug resistance threatens the effective treatment of a growing list of communicable diseases — from bacterial infections to viral and fungal diseases. For all of these reasons, ethicists, health-care researchers, and social scientists have begun to examine how best to ensure that strategies for tackling drug resistance are ethically responsible. While meat costs might climb, drug resistance in livestock would decline, as would adverse environmental effects. But, given the risks implied by deploying ill-considered solutions, careful consideration of the ethical implications of drug resistance strategies is essential.

Source: Irish Examiner February 14, 2018 00:00 UTC