Stratters, the "fear of post AB era" thread is linked in the right hand column under "in the news on MN", or direct clicky here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2513966-Scared-myself-about-antibiotic-resistance
I can't get my head round the lack of research going on... ABs underpin nearly all of modern medicine, without them the whole health system and medical industry would collapse.
Things to do would be to learn about:
scrupulous hygiene... handwashing, housekeeping, clothes washing etc to kill germs and control their spread. With a reduced health support structure we may need to go back to old school methods like boil washes.
natural antibiotics and antivirals... honey, garlic, echinacea, elderberries etc. often a bacterial infection comes on the tails of a virus, so keeping viruses at bay in the winter with hedgerow tinctures is a good idea.
Good nutrition and healthy living...
Avoid a damp house, ventilation during the morning and it keeping warm the rest of the time. Dry clothes outdoors, ventilate bathrooms, use bleach/antimould spray.
Good sleep and rest.
Clean/purified water. Keep toilets well away from fresh water sources. We might not have anti-b's in future, but at least we have the power of knowledge about hygiene and epidemiology... John Snow's study of cholera outbreaks around water pumps in victorian London etc.
Vitamin D, has been shown to mitigate and expedite healing of TB and other infections. Get good sun exposure during the summer months (without burning), but from sept to march the sun doesn't climb high enough in the sky to reach the right wavelength to activate the receptors in your skin, even at noon. So keep supplies during winter and take at least 1,000 iu/25mcg per day. Unless you're eating several large portions of oily fish a day, dietary sources of Vit D don't touch the sides of what you need. Also ensure you eat calcium and vit k2.
Diet... simple, balanced and unprocessed. Wholegrains have more vitamins and amino acids to build protein, but take more fuel to cook. Rosehips contain lots of vitamin C, hence why they were collected and made into syrup in WW2.
Avoid inflammatory foods like sugar and white bread... infections can be harboured and agrevated in inflamed spots.
First aid... do a course, build a kit, including gloves and other transmission control items.
Dental... keep supplies of toothbrushes and toothpaste. You can eke out toothpaste by only using a smudge, but be scrupulous about brushing routines. Go and have a check up soon and any forseeable work that needs doing, eg wisdom tooth extractions. Avoid all but small amounts of sugar.
Quarantine infected household members.
Read "where there is no doctor" & keep a hard copy.
Eating less meat only works at a population level, rather than being something you can do to protect yourself. If you boycott meat, you'll contribute a vanishingly tiny amount to the reduction of AB use in farm animals. But the same disease vectors and transmission patterns will still be there. Only political and legislative action at a global level will make a difference. You might avoid eating the pack of dodgy meat yourself, but the next person along in the supermarket buys it, gets sick, leaves their germs in a public place, which gets back to you. The AB resistance horse has bolted now, we need to lobby against new resistances emerging through prophylaxes/growth promoter use, and advocate for new medical research.