#what happened last week

[zimtgruen]

We are running out of antibiotics. Sham Jaff tells us in her newsletter “what happened last week” why that's a global crisis

What happened

Antibiotics are losing their power (meaning, we are becoming resistant to them), and the world is running out of new antibiotics, says the World Health Organization (WHO). That means we’re heading toward a future where even a small cut could be deadly again.

Refresher: What are antibiotics?

Antibiotics are medicines that kill or stop the growth of bacteria. Before antibiotics, even a small cut or infection could be deadly. Today, they save millions of lives, and are used to treat bacterial infections like pneumonia, urinary tract infections (UTIs), strep throat, and tuberculosis.

Why this matters: The WHO says that antibiotic resistance (AMR) is killing more than one million people a year (some say the number is much higher), and expects that number to surpass cancer as the top cause of death by 2050. For comparison: As of 2022, around ten million people died of cancer.

As with everything, not everyone is affected equally—it affects some people much worse than others, specifically children in poorer countries. A study in The Lancet found that nearly all children under 5 who die from AMR-related infections are from low- and middle-income countries, and children living in African countries below the Sahara desert are 58 times more likely to die from antibiotic resistance than children in wealthy countries.

Tell me more

There are many factors leading to antibiotic resistance.

We don't use antibiotics right. Many people take antibiotics without prescriptions or for the wrong illnesses (e.g., viruses like the flu). Doctors sometimes overprescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics, which kill too many bacteria—including the good ones—allowing resistant ones to take over. This happens everywhere; in Germany, too.

Not everyone has good healthcare. Many people in low-income countries can’t afford full antibiotic treatments, leading to incomplete doses that make bacteria resistant. Fake or low-quality antibiotics are also a problem.

Farm animals are loaded with antibiotics. Farmers use massive amounts of antibiotics on animals to make them grow faster. These drugs leak into water, soil, and food, creating resistant bacteria.

Dirty water. Dirty water and lack of sanitation help spread resistant bacteria. Handwashing alone could reduce infections dramatically.

How is AMR diagnosed?

It looks like a normal infection at first—fever, swelling, or pain—but doesn’t get better with antibiotics. Diagnosing AMR requires lab tests, where bacteria are exposed to different antibiotics to see which ones they survive. Some hospitals use DNA testing to check for resistance genes—but not every country has access to this tech. The earlier AMR is caught, the better the chance of treating it.

Dig deeper: Global Press Journal reporters investigated AMR in seven countries—showing how antibiotic resistance is already a daily nightmare in places like Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Puerto Rico. For example, in Zimbabwe, 93% of the population in the country has no access to health insurance, half of all Ugandans find it difficult to pay for their medical visits, and in Puerto Rico, "there is a belief that any little thing can be solved with antibiotics," one says.

What can be done?

Governments need better laws to control antibiotic sales.

Hospitals & doctors must stop overprescribing antibiotics.

People need to stop demanding antibiotics for colds and flu.

The food industry must cut antibiotic use in animals.

But—and this is important—AMR is much more urgent in poorer countries. Wealthy nations can afford new treatments. Poorer ones face the worst consequences. Without global action, AMR will widen global health inequalities even more.

"Fun" fact: Alexander Fleming—the scientist who discovered penicillin—warned us about this in 1945. He predicted that if we weren’t careful, antibiotics would stop working because of overuse. He was right. Now, we have to decide if we’re actually going to fix it.

[blaqcats-fics]

been thinking about jason being petty towards bruce. like, oh, you spend time with your other kids, but not me? tire privileges revoked! it would be over stupid shit too.

like there’s one time bruce decides to take damien to the movies, and jason is just beside himself.

like the conversation would be like:

JASON: So, let me get this straight—you took Damian to a movie.

BRUCE: He asked.

JASON: Oh, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see Kung Fu Panda 4 with you?!

BRUCE: You were busy.

JASON: Busy taking down a cartel. Which, by the way, I learned from you. I deserve quality time!

BRUCE: Jason—

JASON: No. No excuses. You’ll learn.

Jason storms off. Five minutes later, an alert pops up on the Batcomputer.

BATCOMPUTER: Warning: Batmobile rear tires have been removed.

BRUCE: …Jason.

Cut to Jason outside, rolling two Batmobile tires away, cackling.

[idlestories]

me every single time i’m on the edge of going fully insane about a new fandom: haha what if i just checked ao3. just for fun. just to see what there is. i won’t save anything or get in too deep i’ll just do some recon. i’ll just go see. for fun

[vypridae]

misc sun x moon im soo normal (lie)

[hinamie]

sidelong

[pencilscratchins]

sorry i stopped posting, i got medicated and also engaged

[fishfingersandscarves]

painted my uncle marvin :)

[justheblueberry]

there are those for whom we weep, the young, the bright, the fair

[hiding-under-the-willow]

anyways. What

[nobluesea]

A blow straight through the heart.

Fic so good it ended me my art slump

The image quality got messed up, click here for a better version

[peach-sea]

Cringetober Day 1. Screenshot Redraw

inspired by this early eah scene where raven "lets her bad side out" playing guitar and my cousin and I go "apple's probably losing it" and then they cut to her and she's making this face ↓

[learnelle]

My favourite spot in Dublin 🖤

[sualne]

carnis au or also 'one meat', have some lore!

[xnyu09]

[howly]

headcanon: the boring perfect self control vampire bella thinks she has is a LIE and at one point she caught human scent mid-hunt and snapped. it made her so wild she had to be restrained to the point where things got ugly

i know edward would never dare to do it and meyer would never dare write it and in canon newborn vamp bella would be far stronger than him...

actually. you know who would be stronger than one young vampire? two old vampires. and who would act practical in a critical situation? emmett

imagine edward and bella heading out for a hunt and emmett being like "do you guys mind if i tag along? i feel like snacking". bella's a little mad at the prospect of suddenly having a third wheel (homegirl wasn't planning on just. hunting) but alice gets a weird hunch and goes "no, no, em should go with you" ok nostradamus. he's going.

fast forward they're in the mountain. bella finds having emmett third-wheeling is not half bad. in emmett's head, lowkey it's bella who's the third wheel after so many decades of him hunting together with edward. but nevertheless, it's so fun with her around. all is good until they catch the scent of an entire group of friends hiking just a couple of miles from here, away from all civilization. emmett and edward stop in their tracks, ready to turn around. bella, her guard down, loses it and stars running towards the group, so they have no choice but to charge at her. while strugging to keep her in place, they try to talk her down but she doesn't listen. she doesn't care, she's strong enough to fight them off, and she fights and claws and hisses and breaks bones of whoever gets in her way because there are so many pulses just a few minutes' run away from her and their scent is so sweet and burning and calling, calling, calling to her

while struggling to restrain her, emmett grunts "we have to disarm her". edward catches the image in his head and shouts "no! you can't literally disarm bella!". well, how the hell do you expect us to stop her from massacring all those hikers? we'll just put her back together afterwards. duh!, emmett thinks, and knows he has to act fast so he goes in while bella's busy yanking away from edward's grip and tears off a limb. or two. all 3 of them may or may not be screaming.

a few moments later edward's pinning bella to the ground, holding her face between his palms, forcing her to look at him. her thrashing is not so effective with limited body parts. part of him wants to yell at emmett but that's kind of low priority. he's holding on to the last of his composure while he looks down at bella's feral expression and chants 'baby. i'm so sorry but i'll give you your leg back after you calm down a bit. i won't be able to outrun you if you go chasing after those people now. please calm down. i love you. hold your breath'

just then she listens, stops breathing and her vision refocuses. for the first time she realizes she was on her way to slaughter a bunch of strangers and she broke the arm of the man she loves at least three times when he tried to stop her. she wants to open her mouth and apologize but that will require her to breathe and possibly go crazy with thirst again. so she stares back at edward's panicked eyes and nods at him, her own red eyes just as full of terror.

then she looks over his shoulder and sees emmett waving her severed leg in the air like it's a baseball bat. "hey, did you know that rose wears the same shoe size?"

[tunastime]

in the span of 48 hours I went from being indifferent about helsknight to not being able to stop thinking about him. who's out here putting curses on me. speak up