Sunday 13 April 2014

Antibiotics

There can't be many doctors in Britain who aren't aware of the current mounting crisis in infectious diseases treatment, resulting from the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. For not much more than 50 years we have been blessed with the ability to treat bacterial infections with spectacular success. DZ trained as a medical student at the height of this golden age, yet even so I remember our undergraduate training in microbiology as being long and detailed.
But even then, 40 years ago, the microbiologists were warning of the perils of antibiotic overuse and resltant resistance, so we've been aware of the potential problem for a long time. So what has stunned me is a statement in this article where it is stated that undergraduate medical training in microbiology occupies just two hours. Total! Have we become so complacent about bacterial infection that we don't think it's worth teaching doctors about it any more?
So we now face a possible massive resurgence of bacterial disease, which the emerging generation of doctors will be totally unprepared for. One has to ask those that set the content of training what were they thinking. And what has been considered so important for trainee doctors to learn, that they have to make room by discarding microbiology? More fucking sociology I expect.

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