Current Issues

Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a serious issue where bacteria evolve to become resistant to antibiotics used to treat them.
This is a direct consequence of the overuse or misuse of antibiotics, for instance, not completing a full course, thereby allowing some bacteria to survive and adapt.
The rise of ‘superbugs’ – bacteria that are resistant to multiple types of antibiotics – is particularly concerning.
Scientists are constantly striving to develop new antibiotics that can successfully target these resistant bacteria.

Vaccination hesitancy refers to the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate, despite the availability of vaccines.
Main reasons include fears about vaccine safety, lack of trust in healthcare providers or vaccine manufacturers, or belief in vaccine myths.
This can lead to declines in vaccination coverage and resurgence of preventable diseases.
Vaccine hesitancy has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten threats to global health.

New diseases, often referred to as emerging infectious diseases, can pose major challenges in prevention and treatment.
These can be entirely new infections (like COVID-19), or known diseases spreading to new regions (like Zika virus).
Rapid global travels and urbanization can accelerate the spread of these diseases making them difficult to control.

Disease eradication is the complete and permanent worldwide reduction to zero new cases of the disease.
Notable success stories in disease eradication include smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980 thanks to a global immunization program.
Current targets for eradication include polio and Guinea worm disease.
However, issues like vaccination hesitancy, conflict zones, hard-to-reach populations, and other social, political, and economic barriers make disease eradication a complex target.

Health inequalities denote the differences in health status or in the distribution of health resources between different population groups.
This can lead to certain groups having better access to advanced treatments while others do not.
Such disparities can be based on factors such as socioeconomic status, geography, gender, age, or ethnicity.