<p>Medical science has advanced so far that we’ve long come to expect that just about any illness can be treated.</p>
<p>But drug-resistant infections are advancing even more rapidly, and they’re overtaking the best that medical science has to offer.</p>
<p>In Canada, superbugs immune to first-line antibiotics account for 26% of the treated infections and caused thousands of deaths last year, according to a new landmark report.</p>
<p>And the expert panel warns that’s likely to rise to 40% by 2050. That would exact a terrible toll in lost lives, dramatically increased health-care costs and diminished social cohesion as fears over untreatable infections affect how people live and work.</p>
<p>Think of the 2003 SARS outbreak as the new normal.</p>
<p>That’s the scary picture detailed recently by the federally funded Council of Canadian Academies in a report titled “When Antibiotics Fail.”</p>
<p>It’s the most comprehensive look at this global threat with Canadian data. But it’s hardly the first such warning.</p>
<p>Scientists have been sounding the alarm for years. The United Nations has declared antibiotic-resistant superbugs to be one of the biggest threats to global health. Experts have said superbugs are a threat as serious as terrorism and national disasters.</p>
<p>And Brett Finlay, the microbiologist who chaired the expert panel, says the problem is on the same scale as climate change.</p>
<p>That is, of course, yet another global challenge that governments and societies at large struggle to tackle.</p>
<p>But, as Finlay says, “it’s time to do something now.”</p>
<p>This report calls for more careful use of antibiotics to preserve their effectiveness; research into possible new treatments; better infection prevention, including proper hand hygiene; and better data collection to identify emerging trends.</p>
<p>Those aren’t new solutions. But they require sustained effort and investment.</p>
<p>Hopefully this time, public-health policy makers are listening.</p>
