Savior becoming a threat, but that is preventable

Last month, all of China applauded Tu Youyou as she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for her work in developing a drug that is now used globally to treat malaria. In 1945, the same prize was awarded to three scientists for producing the world's first antibiotic, penicillin.

The discovery of penicillin was one of the single most important advances in the history of medical science. Antibiotics have revolutionized modern medicine by making previously incurable illnesses like pneumonia, scarlet fever and tuberculosis and life-threatening infections treatable. Countless lives have been saved over the last 70 years as a result.

Today, antibiotics have become a victim of their own success. Antibiotics have been used so extensively that many are becoming powerless against diseases they used to cure. Like other once bright, shiny, new tools, antibiotics have become worn out-and less effective and incisive over time simply because we haven't used them right. Bacteria are increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics, and while new drugs have been developed, the pace of discovery has not kept up with the pace of bacterial resistance.