Opinion / Commentary  Antibiotic resistance a growing crisis
Canada urgently needs an action plan to come up with new drugs
to fight increasing antibiotic resistance.  Faced with a choice
between investing in new antibiotics or finding cures for other
diseases, the pharmaceutical industry has elected to drop
antibiotic development.    Imagine a world without antibiotics.
Infections that we now routinely dispatch are again life-
threatening. Cures for pneumonia, urinary tract infections,
venereal diseases and a host of others are nonexistent.
Antibiotics are vital to prevent infection for many medical
procedures. Cancer chemotherapies that deplete the white blood
cells that protect against infection and organ transplants that
require lifelong suppression of the immune system to avoid
rejection would be a thing of the past.  Surgery? Everything
from coronary bypass to hip replacements becomes incredibly
risky once the surgeon cuts through the protective skin. And the
list goes on.  A world without antibiotics