The growth in superbugs - infections which are resistant to antibiotics - is one of the biggest public health crises facing the world today, and pollution in drug companies’ supply chains is one of its causes. Yet the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has established that firms with a history of bad practice and pollution are supplying the NHS, and environmental standards do not feature in NHS procurement protocols.
New tests on water samples taken outside pharmaceutical factories in India which sell to the NHS found they contained bacteria which were resistant to the antibiotics made inside the plants.
This suggests industrial waste containing active antibiotic ingredients is being leaked into the surrounding environment. Studies have shown how this causes nearby bacteria to develop immunity to the drugs - creating “superbugs” - and that those resistant bacteria then spread around the world.
You can read the rest @
http://truepublica.org.uk/global/revealed-dirty-production-nhs-drugs-india-helps-create-superbugs-britain/
I don't think it's fair to blame this on India. Antibiotics also can be found in US wastewater, drinking water, soil, and various places in our food chain. We're a nation hooked on drugs, both legal and illegal.
We did this to ourselves, and it will be poetic justice that many of us will die from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment