Title: Antibiotic Misuse Portends Future Utah Health Crisis—Public-Private Cooperation Needed

Name: Kade Roberts
Mentor: Briana Bowen

Antibiotics are a pillar of the public health of the United States and Utah. In healthcare, antibiotics have aided in the near doubling of life expectancy over the last century, lowered the threat of communicable disease, and allowed for increasingly innovative medical procedures. Use of antibiotics in agriculture has allowed farmers and ranchers to increase efficiency and output, enabling our society to support an increased population size. An emerging crisis across the United States is the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, facilitated by the misuse of antibiotic drugs. Misuse can happen in healthcare and agriculture through overprescription or not following directions relating to proper antibiotic intake. If deeply concerning present trends continue, the widespread proliferation of antibiotic-resistant superbugs could shatter the current healthcare and agricultural systems, in the worst case forcing them to revert an early 20th century, pre-antibiotic era structure. Like every state, Utah has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Thousands have become sick, the healthcare system has been severely strained, school functions are stressed, the economy and jobs have experienced major disruptions, and there has been a lack of public health cooperation by the general population. The current crisis provides an important illustration of the large-scale effects that another pandemic––one caused by an antibiotic-resistant pathogen–– could have on our society. The WHO has warned that such a pandemic could have an annual death toll of 10 million/year worldwide and economic effects akin to the 2008 global financial crisis. To combat the emerging danger of antibiotic resistance, legislators would benefit from increasingly working with researchers, public health specialists, farmers and ranchers, and healthcare organizations to help create the governance framework to protect the viability of antibiotics. Through public-private cooperation, Utah may be able to stop or mitigate this challenge before it reaches a tipping point.

View the presentation slides: