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The world is on the cusp of a threatening development: bacteria are developing resistance to existing antibiotics faster than new antibiotics are coming onto the market. An ever-increasing gap is opening up. This "antibiotic gap", as experts call this development, marks the beginning of a new era in medicine. For the first time in recent history, we have to come to terms with the fact that not all bacterial infections are treatable - with implications for all areas of medicine, from surgery to oncology. The WHO has been using the term "silent pandemic" since fall 2021, because unlike coronavirus, resistance to antibiotics is creeping into our society unnoticed - but it is shaking up our healthcare system just as comprehensively. The issue is now so serious that it is being treated with the same urgency on the international political stage as climate change or migration.
In the highly acclaimed documentary Resistance Fighters - The Global Antibiotic Crisis (2019), Michael Wech and the team led by producer Leopold Hoesch explored the causes of antibiotic resistance and the far-reaching significance of the problem in the style of a scientific thriller. With STILLE PANDEMIE, they continue the story and once again name the problem, but this time focus on the search for solutions. They show how countries, scientists and private initiatives around the world are networking and joining forces and what strategies and measures they are using to combat the increasing resistance to antibiotics. A lot has happened since the UN resolution in 2016: Almost all countries have since activated national action plans to combat resistance, foundations and NGOs have launched projects and measures in less developed countries and achieved initial, promising successes. And even on the most controversial topic, the use of antibiotics in animal fattening, there have been initial successes, as poultry producers in the USA have found ways to continue their production on a large scale without antibiotics.
