Original version

BBC World Service Online

The Inquiry

Documentaries

Factual

News

Getting beyond the headlines to explore the forces and ideas shaping the world

The Inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world.

BBC Radio 4

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Inquiry: How Did We Mess up Antibiotics?

How did we mess up Antibiotics?

18/10/2016 GMT

How Did We Mess up Antibiotics?

BBC World Service - The Inquiry, How Did We Mess up Antibiotics?

We are moving towards a world where antibiotics no longer work.

Many kinds of deadly bacteria are now resistant to most antibiotics and we are moving towards a world where antibiotics no longer work.

Warnings about the approaching post-antibiotics apocalypse have been sounding for years. There are now strains of deadly bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics. This means that doctors are faced with patients who have completely untreatable infections. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are dying due to antibiotic resistance - and this number is set to rise rapidly. If we carry on like this, scientists predict we will return to a pre-antibiotic era, where organ transplants, chemotherapy and C-sections are impossible. 

We have come a long way since 1928, when the famous chance discovery of penicillin led to a golden age in which antibiotics were seen as wonder drugs, heralding in an age of huge medical advances and increased human life spans. But by the 1990s we were running out of new antibiotics and infections were again a killer. How did this happen?

Our expert witnesses are medic and historian, Dr Eric Sidebottom, Dr Scott Podolsky of Harvard Medical School, journalist Maryn McKenna and infectious disease specialist Brad Spellberg.

(Photo: A depiction EHEC bacteria. Credit: HZI/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Inquiry

How Did We Mess up Antibiotics?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service