Horrific diseases that blight humanity

[confusedcyclist]

Spotted this interesting infographic in this morning's news about the rise of antimicrobial resistance and it's impact on mortality rates. Hmm...

Are those boffins at the BBC on to something.

 

[confusedcyclist]

I was shocked at the numbers of RTA deaths, presumably this is annually/globally but the article didn't say.

 

[chewa]

I think the big worry is those lung diseases (akin to TB) which are hard to treat anyway. Add in AMR and it becomes a nighmare.

I have personal experience, having lost my mother to such a disease and at present have a young(ish) friend with the same debilitating illness, not responding terribly well at all.

 

[Cycleops]

No mention there about Malaria which is one of the biggest killers worldwide but doesn't affect people much in the UK. This is a very serious problem, resistance to antibiotics is growing and nobody is developing new ones, I guess because of the huge cost involved.

 

[confusedcyclist]

...nobody is developing new ones, I guess because of the huge cost involved.

Because capitalism is seriously flawed, no one wants to invest billions into a drug that will be taken once, twice, maybe a dozen times and then the patient recovers. Instead they focus their resources on drugs that people are reliant on until the day they die, think beta blockers, chemotherapy etc... The risk of the drug being made redundant due to resistance is too great, so the industry don't bother. This is why it's important that the state pumps funds into research for the problem.

 

[Dave 123]

No mention of ignorance.....

 

[Levo-Lon]

Something has to thin us out...we're the blight on the Earth after all..

 

[User269]

And that's before you begin to look at such life threatening mental illnesses such as depression...........

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

When I saw the title I thought this was another thread about Bono.

 

[Markymark]

Man-flu.

The worst of them all.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Stupidity

 

[ufkacbln]

Heathcote Williams "Autogeddon" has. A wonderful assessment of road deaths

MORE than twice the number in the death-camps,

A hundred and thirty times the kill at Hiroshima,

Eight times the count in Korea,

Two hundred and thirty Vietnams,

Eight thousand five hundred Ulsters . . .

The Hundred Years War in a week;

The Crusades in under thirty seconds.

A Black Death with bubonic rats on wheels,

A quarter of a million ‘auto-fatalities’ a year―

The humdrum holocaust―

 

[Chromatic]

 

[fossyant]

Mod wading in........

Keep it away from cheap insults and very controversial views folks. Ruins a good debate that was started.

 

[The Jogger]

I've got a funny feeling this thread is not for a hypochondriac, like me