THE DRUGS DONT WORK

The Drugs Don t Work A Penguin Special by Professor Dame Sally Davies the Chief Medical Officer for England If we fail to act we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine where treatable infections and injuries will kill once again David Cameron Prime Minister Antibiotics add on average twenty years to our lives For over seventy years since the manufacture of penicillin in 1943 we have survived extraordinary operations and life threatening infections We are so familiar with these wonder drugs that we take them for granted The truth is that we have been abusing them as patients as doctors as travellers in our food No new class of antibacterial has been discovered for twenty six years and the bugs are fighting back If we do not take responsibility now in a few decades we may start dying from the most commonplace of operations and ailments that can today be treated easily This short book which will be enjoyed by readers of An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore and Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre will be the subject of a TEDex talk given by Professor Dame Sally Davies at the Royal Albert Hall Professor Dame Sally C Davies is the Chief Medical Officer for England and th