This segment from CBS This Morning discusses a few things including the United Nations General Assembly meeting that was called in New York to discuss the rise of antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens, a growing threat to health worldwide.
Some facts about superbugs are presented as well as a short discussion about the meeting with HHS Secretary Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. One point to note - it is now estimated that antibiotic resistance will contribute to the deaths of over 10 million people per year, by 2050.
Overuse of antibiotic is a major contributor to this problem. Better diagnostics have to not only be developed, but also used by doctors and clinics in order to determine when antibiotics are needed, as opposed to simply prescribing them when they are requested for example. The world also needs to find some new antibiotics.
The discussion also continues to include the current status of funding for studies on the Zika virus, which have not moved through Congress yet this year. Scientists have been scrambling to find sources to accelerate research on the virus but it's becoming harder to scrape up the money.
Another topic discussed in the final third of the video is the opioid epidemic that is facing the United States. Again, more appropriate prescriptions in the proper amounts are a critical factor in this issue.
