People in developed countries for several decades after World War II became complacent about infectious disease. AIDS has to some extent dented that complacency. But, having conquered major killers like smallpox, tuberculosis, pneumonia, meningitis and poliomyelitis through vaccinations and antibiotics we still remain too complacent. That complacency reveals itself in too little vigilance with childhood vaccinations and the abuse of antibiotics.
Dr Peter Collignon of Woden Valley Hospital and the Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance have warned in an article in the Medical Journal of Australia that several serious diseases are becoming resistant to antibiotics, leaving patients with only natural resistance which might not be enough to hold off long-term damage or death. These warnings must be taken very seriously. Fortunately, Australia does a reasonable job of policing drug prescription. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the world does not, allowing antibiotics to be sold over the counter, and the prevalence of travel makes the spread of resistant bugs more likely.
Australia must to more to curtail the use of antibiotics where they are not really needed (in curbing minor infection) or are useless (in curbing viruses).
Disease or its absence is probably a far greater determinant of human misery and happiness and of the course of history itself than the human force of politics.