Thanks to Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928, antibiotics put an end to a world where people died from the most innocuous infection. But they’re no longer the panacea they once were because resistance is growing. Here are a few useful facts about penicillin and its pals:
1. Half of all antibiotics are given to animals
We associate these bacteria-killing drugs with human use, but antibiotics are widely used to treat food-producing animals like chickens and pigs. Often livestock are being dosed with the same antibiotics as we take. This is contributing to antibiotic resistance in humans.
2. The last new antibiotic was discovered in the 1980s
From 1940 to 1962, 20 new classes of antibiotics came on the market. In the next 50 years only two new ones came out. Developing these drugs is costly, but they’re only used for a short period, so pharmaceutical companies worry that they won’t get their money back.
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