Pharmaceutical antibiotics have caused the emergence of antibiotic-resistant traits in infectious bacteria. Now many of these antibiotics are considered worthless at treating life-threatening infections. As these drugs have become ineffective, the antibiotic supply line has become increasingly vulnerable to shortages.
The Access to Medicine Foundation (AMF) reports that the world is becoming dependent on a few big suppliers for a fragile antibiotic supply, causing shortages in hospitals around the world. Tight supply for intensive care antibiotics like piperacillin-tazobactam has put many lives at risk.
Germany, Brazil and 37 other countries now face shortages of benzathine penicillin G, which is used to prevent the transmission of syphilis from mother to child. The antibiotics that currently work the best are becoming scarce and medical professionals have to depend on generic, less effective antibiotics to treat patients. Many of these treatments are backfiring because bacteria have mutated and can now outsmart these antibiotics.