Stopping Antibiotic Abuse by Agribusiness: Make Them Pay
The overabundance of antibiotics released into the environment poses a threat to public health, and one economics professor thinks he has found a way to limit the damage, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine - make people pay.
"Modern medicine relies on antibiotics to kill off bacterial infections," said Aidan Hollis, Ph.D., economic professor at the University of Calgary, in a press release. "This is incredibly important. Without effective antibiotics, any surgery – even minor ones – will become extremely risky. Cancer therapies, similarly, are dependent on the availability of effective antimicrobials. Ordinary infections will kill otherwise healthy people."
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently released a plan to have food manufacturers voluntarily remove the use of unnecessary antibiotics within three years, Hollis and co-author Ziana Ahmed cited two problems with that plan. First, the ban requires officials to monitor farmers. Second, the widespread application of antibiotics can prove difficult to classify, and necessary use could be penalized.
Instead of an outright ban, Hollis suggested a user fee on the nonhuman use of antibiotics. Because antibiotics have limited value if used in excess, Hollis believes charging a fee for using them should curb the administration of the finite resource and preserve their value.
http://www.weather.com/health/charge-those-who-abuse-antibiotics-professor-suggests-20131226