Superbugs and us

These days you would have to be peculiarly immune to public health messaging not to know that the world is on the brink of an antibiotic apocalypse. From the back of pill packets to the panels on the back of buses, prompts urging us to "keep antibiotics working" are almost as ubiquitous as the drug-resistant microbes themselves. Although medical experts have been warning about the indiscriminate use of antibiotics since the 1940s, their consumption continues to grow. This is not only a problem in countries like South Africa and India where antibiotics are widely available over the counter.