How Economic Development Affects Antibiotic Resistance

John Horowitz () and H. Brian Moehring

Journal for Economic Educators, 2014, vol. 14, issue 1, 58-77

Abstract: Initially, economic development increases resistance because migration of people to urban areas in developing countries increases incomes, crowding and the use of antibiotics. Also, developing countries often don't require prescriptions or distribute high quality antibiotics. In developed countries, antibiotic resistance often falls or there is a decline in the rate of growth of resistance because infections decline with improvements in water quality, sanitation, housing and nutrition. However, in developed countries most antibiotics are used to treat food animals rather than humans. The use of antibiotics to treat food animals creates a risk that the effectiveness of antibiotics to treat humans will be reduced. However, evidence seems to indicate that antibiotic use in animals has had little effect on antibiotic resistance in humans.

Keywords: economic development; antibiotic resistance; antimicrobial resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 I15 I18 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://capone.mtsu.edu/jee/2014/P58to77-MS912.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mts:jrnlee:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:58-77

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal for Economic Educators from Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael Roach ().