- He was the first person to perform robotic surgery in the country, pioneered keyhole operations, and used AI to diagnose breast cancer
- READ MORE: How to overcome fear of needles
Lord Ara Darzi is a pioneering surgeon and crossbench peer in the House of Lords. He was the first person to perform robotic surgery in the country, pioneered keyhole operations, and used AI to diagnose breast cancer.
The British surgeon has now revealed maybe the next global health threat that he fears more than Covid.
Already responsible for killing over one million people a year, antibiotic resistance leads to untreatable superbugs.
It’s this that the health pioneer has warned is more frightening than the Covid pandemic that rocked the world.
The 63-year-old Armenian refugee is so concerned by the threat posed by antibiotic resistance that he is setting up his own centre to fight back against the ‘silent pandemic’.
Speaking to The Times, the crossbench peer revealed his worries and plans. He said: ‘In 2028 there will be as many people dying of infections that are resistant to antibiotics as died from infections in 1928 prior to the discovery of penicillin.
‘Bacteria have been around for three billion years, well before humanity existed. They’ve survived all sorts of conditions, from the frozen world to great heat. They survived by mutating.
‘Antibiotics are an external threat to bacteria, so they evolve constantly to become resistant to them.’
He added that in many ways, antibiotic resistance was ‘more frightening’ than Covid and hospitals can end up in situations without any antibiotics to treat an infection – something he warned is already happening.
Mr Darzi warned that antibiotics were being overused as doctors took the ‘easy way out’ by prescribing them for colds of the flu, or just feeling under the weather – when they’re there to treat bacterial infection.
However, shockingly it’s not just a human problem with some parts of the world seeing cattle plugged full of antibiotics as well – further worsening the issue.
