The numbers are shocking: according to Save Antibiotics, a health initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, 23 thousand Americans die every year because they don’t have the medicines they need to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Add to this an additional two million who are sickened.
Why is this happening? How did we get here?
According to Dr. Gail Hansen, a senior officer for Pew’s campaign on human health and industrial farming, industrial livestock production plays a big role. The animals crowded into feedlots by the tens of thousands are fed sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics in their feed rations. This practice helps create antibiotic-resistant bacteria – superbugs. And that’s a health threat of crisis proportions.
This situation can be reversed, says Dr. Hansen, and the greatest influencers are consumers – you and me. How?
Listen to this live Deep Roots Radio interview with Dr. Hansen, expert in infectious diseases and the antibiotic resistant superbugs that threaten public health in the US and worldwide.