No more antibiotics

Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies has warned of an “apocalyptic scenario” where people going for simple operations in 20 years die of routine infections “because they have run out of antibiotics.”

Why we’re running out of effective antibiotics – in between 10 and 20 years time, all bacteria may be antibiotic resistant.

That means that dangerous infections like Tuberculosis grow a lot more dangerous, and minor ailments like strep throat or an ear infection become killers.

Alanna Shaikh explains what this means and how an innovative approach to fighting bacteria is needed.