Dominic Hughes
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
Yeah, we've known for many years that developed countries have had a big problem with people who are overweight and obese. The USA, many European countries, not least the UK where we're talking today. Among the high income countries, the USA has got like the highest rates of obesity. Around 42% of males and 46% of females were affected by obesity in 2021.
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
But now we're seeing developed countries as well, especially high levels already in areas like Oceania, North Africa and the Middle East. 62% of adult males in Nauru, the Cook Islands and American Samoa, and over 71% of adult women in Tonga and Nauru live with obesity. In terms of raw numbers... China, India and the USA have the countries with the biggest populations.
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
But weight gain varies wildly across the globe. More than half of the world's adults who are overweight or obese in 2021, they live in just eight countries. So as well as China, India and the USA, also Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Egypt. And there are really significant numbers of people living with these conditions.
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
But population growth means that forecasters are predicting the number in sub-Saharan Africa will rise by more than 250% to 522 million people who are living with overweight or obesity. And Nigeria in particular really stands out. The predicted number there is projected to more than triple to 141 million people in 2050.
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
And that would make it the country with the fourth largest population of adults who are overweight or obese.
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
Bernadette, it's really complex. It's partly to do with big changes in society that we've seen in recent decades. So, for example, people moving from rural areas to the cities... but it's partly also to do with changing diets. Basically, more calories are being consumed, but not necessarily better quality food.
Global News Podcast
Trump halts military aid to Ukraine
So in some countries like China, we've seen a big shift towards dairy products that perhaps weren't so common in the diet 30 years ago, but also experts have pointed to the spread of things like ultra-processed foods around the globe, and they seem to be having a real impact on people's diets as well.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Well, that was the BBC's Abdul Jalil Abdulrasilov talking about what he found in Ukraine, an extraordinary illustration there of the role of war building up antimicrobial resistance. Listening to that and still with me is the BBC's global health correspondent, Dominic Hughes. Dom, is the situation that Abdul Jalil just described, is that mirrored, as far as we understand, in other conflicts?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
I'm thinking particularly, of course, of Gaza.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
And, of course, what's particularly noticeable in Gaza is the intermingling of civilians throughout the conflict. And that presumably ups the risk of increased resistance.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Dom, it's absolutely fascinating what you say, because I have to say, I hadn't thought for a moment about, you know, war as an accelerant for antimicrobial resistance. And yet what Abdul Jalil said, what you just say about Gaza, it's clearly happening. Is there anything that can be done to slow the rate or the increase in the rate of AMR in war zones?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
And really, really challenging when the war zone is spread throughout society rather than being a battlefield or a front line. What about in civilian medicine, leaving the war zones for the moment to one side? How can sort of best practice help limit antimicrobial resistance among civilians?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
We talked about the growth of antimicrobial resistance in war zones. And you mentioned, you know, that you were pretty pleased you weren't in a part of the world where there were diseases that had become resistant to antimicrobial drugs. It begs the question, how much of a global problem is this really? Or is it more about bad luck you've been born there, bad luck you happen to be in a war zone?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
A good start, but a long, long way to go. Exactly that. Dom Hughes, thank you so much for joining us. It's been brilliant to have you on the show. Always a pleasure. And thanks so much to you for listening. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at theglobalstory at bbc.com or you can send us a message or a voice note on WhatsApp. Our number is plus 44 330 123 9480.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
You can find those details in our show notes. Wherever you're listening in the world, this has been The Global Story. Thank you for having us in your headphones and we'll catch you next time.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
OK, so then along come... antimicrobials. Now, I think a fair number of people will probably be thinking, hang on, antimicrobial antibiotics, are they one and the same thing?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
So antibiotics are a subset of a broader group of antimicrobials. Exactly that, yeah. What about the discovery of antimicrobials and the people that made these, I guess, revolutionary discoveries?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
They have saved countless lives and improved tens, maybe hundreds of millions more. Antimicrobial drugs have transformed the health of humanity. Some of the greatest advances in those drugs' development have been forged in wartime. But now those same wars threaten the progress that's been made.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Penicillin, which is probably what most people, if they think about antibiotics, they think about penicillin as the sort of great father of antibiotics. You said that happens between the First and the Second World War, presumably. It's the Second World War that means you have a massive take-up, in particular on the battlefield.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
How much have we relied on antimicrobials since then?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
It sounds like they are very common, both in civilian life and in military life.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Don, since I was a kid, there has been talk of of in particular antibiotic resistance, of all of us becoming resistant or the threat of resistance, of no longer being touched properly by antibiotics. Can you just explain how the resistance builds and how we understand the pattern of it?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
A new dark age of drug resistance looms as antimicrobial drugs are prescribed in massive quantities on the battlefield and to civilian casualties. Today, the story of humanity's triumph over disease and how that is threatened by the wars we fight. With me today is Dominic Hughes, our global health correspondent. Hello, Johnny. How are you? It's just lovely to have you on the show.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
So why don't we just discover some new antimicrobials to get round the... Resistance that's trying to get around the ones we've got already.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
We've been talking about resistance to antimicrobials as if it's just a sort of one thing. Is it or do you have different kinds of resistance?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Tom, can I just ask you a personal question? I mean, you know, you're our global health correspondent. You've been sort of wallowing in all this stuff for a fair old time. I mean, does it alarm you? I mean, does it make you think, gosh, sound the alarm.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
So we've looked at the revolutionary development of antimicrobials, their massive importance to modern medicine and the threat of developing a resistance to them. Next, we're going to hear how antimicrobial resistance is being driven by global conflict from Ukraine to Gaza. This is The Global Story. We bring you one big international story in detail five days a week.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Thank you very much indeed. We are talking, of course, about antimicrobial resistance. Can we start with where we were before we had drugs like these, where we were, I guess, for civilians, but also where we were in wartime?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
Follow or subscribe wherever you listen. Earlier on, we told you about the near miraculous difference that antimicrobials made to the treatment of battlefield infections when they were first mass produced more than 80 years ago. But on the front lines in Ukraine... War is rapidly undermining the power of these treatments.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: Antibiotics - A casualty of war?
The BBC's Abdul Jalil Abdulrasilov has been speaking to soldiers and hospital staff to see how antimicrobial resistance is affecting the ability to treat casualties. This is what he found.