The year is 2050. Sonia is 4 years old and has had a very bad night, with a high fever, cough and difficulty breathing. She goes with her parents to enquiry. There, the doctor takes a sample of her secretions, inserts it into an apparatus and after a few minutes obtains the result: it is an infection caused by pneumococcus. The system also informs you of the series of antibiotics that can be administered to kill the infection. This all sounds great, the prognosis is a full recovery; however, if that same girl were to go to the doctor today, in November 2016, the doctor would not be able to obtain this information so quickly and, more seriously, would not have such a range of antibiotics to eliminate the infection. Antibiotics that were effective against bacterial infections yesterday are no longer effective today. Last year, 700,000 people died worldwide from antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And if we do nothing to remedy this, the forecast for 2050 will be 10 million deaths. 40,000 of them in Spain. If we do nothing, Sonia will not be so lucky.

Why are there now more resistant bacteria than ever before? An antibiotic is a chemical agent capable of inactivating and sometimes destroying bacteria. Bacteria, on the other hand, multiply very quickly and make mistakes, so that variants (mutants, in biological jargon) appear very frequently. The massive and indiscriminate use of antibiotics employment eliminates sensitive bacteria, but new resistant mutant bacteria survive and become the majority. These are then transmitted among us and to our children, either directly or even through food (up to one third of the most antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens are found in food).

Who is to blame Can we do anything? We are all to blame, because we do not use antibiotics properly, because animal production farms abuse them, because governments do not legislate or control their use properly, because research is not supported and because we do not communicate well. However, there is still time to act. We can inform ourselves and raise awareness with initiatives such as today's, November 18: European Day for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.

A few months ago, for the first time in its history, the European Union brought together its health and agriculture ministers to discuss the threat of antibiotic resistance.
The indiscriminate use of antibiotics on livestock farms is directly linked to the increase in antibiotic resistance," they concluded. The message was clear, unquestionable. The problem now lies in compliance.
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has detected that out of 130 countries evaluated, more than 110 do not have legislation for the prudent use of antibiotics. If this continues to be the case, and these products are available over the counter, the scenario for the coming years looks very gray.

Medical professionals themselves, lacking the necessary means to quickly make an accurate diagnosis, prescribe antibiotics without clear evidence of bacterial infection. On the other hand, most citizens are not aware that influenza and most colds are viral in origin, and that antibiotics are not effective against them. They are not aware that using them inappropriately, taking them without a prescription or not following the prescribed guidelines and doses will tragically result in resistant bacteria winning the battle.

The message is clear, we must use rationally the antibiotics that still work and, in addition, support research to make new antibiotics available. Efforts are needed at the international level, laws that are enforced, more training and better communication. This serious problem can still be tackled.