Thousands of years before Alexander Fleming received the Nobel Prize for discovering penicillin, people in different parts of the world had already intuitively learned to use plants with antimicrobial properties.

Although penicillin officially received its name only in 1942, it had begun helping people much earlier, both in peacetime and during wars and epidemics.

Today, life without antibiotics is impossible to imagine, РИА Новости writes. They are widely used in medicine, animal husbandry, and many other industries. Naturally, numerous myths have formed around antibacterial drugs. One of the most common claims is that these medications cause irreversible harm to the body and should be completely abandoned.

Antibiotics are a group of medications that inhibit the growth of or destroy bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and even certain types of malignant tumor cells.

At the same time, some people view antibiotics as something hostile and potentially dangerous — believing that taking them weakens the body’s own defense systems and leads to resistance, making the drugs ineffective in truly serious situations in the future.

As always, the truth lies somewhere in between. Kira Zaslavskaya emphasizes that bacteria existed long before humans and will continue to exist after us. Scientific studies show that bacteria and microflora played an important role in the evolution of life on Earth.

No matter how hard humanity tries, the macroworld and the microworld remain in constant interaction.

Antibiotics must be prescribed by a physician and taken at the right time and for the proper course. Self-medication in bacterial infections can lead to severe complications. It is also important to note that there are many highly dangerous hospital-acquired infections where entire combinations of antibiotics are used to save a patient’s life.

According to Kira Zaslavskaya, the modern world must under no circumstances abandon antibacterial therapy. Current analytics show no such prospects.

The numbers confirm this. According to international research companies, the global antibiotic market is demonstrating steady growth, driven by the increasing prevalence of infectious diseases, longer life expectancy, and the ongoing need to combat antibiotic resistance.

By various estimates, the global antibiotic market reached approximately $49–54 billion in 2025 and could grow to $70–84 billion by 2035, with an average annual growth rate of 3.25–4.5%.

New antibiotics, new drug combinations, and medications with novel antibacterial mechanisms must continue to be developed. Scientists also need to explore different ways of influencing bacterial life processes — but abandoning either research or therapy is not an option.

If today a patient may need, for example, five tablets during a treatment course, in the future medicine aims to solve the problem with a single pill featuring a different mechanism of action targeting the bacterial life cycle. Fifth-generation antibiotics already exist, yet the potential for further development remains enormous. After all, so-called superinfections are also evolving. “They will always try to break through the wall of defense,” Zaslavskaya explained.

The world cannot — and should not — abandon antibiotics. They are not an enemy but a tool that, when used properly, saves millions of lives. Yes, bacteria will continue to evolve, but medicine is advancing as well. The future lies not in rejecting antibiotics, but in improving them — making them more effective, safer, and more convenient for patients.

“We will always live alongside bacteria. But we must have the tools to stay one step ahead,” Zaslavskaya concluded.

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