FUTURES

The Ghost of Microbes Future
demonstrating how this health crisis will disproportionately impact the poor
and disenfranchised. These stories convey individual patient’s frustration with
an impersonal health care system that will be made worse with the rise of
AMR, but the stories also ask the reader to empathise with the health care
professionals working in what is already an overburdened field. These six
stories also depict the personal costs that come with an increase in AMR.
The burdens of caring for perpetually sick loved ones will intensify in a world
where antimicrobials are no longer effective, while the dangers of a world
in which common infections may potentially kill you will severely limit our
interactions with other people.
Ultimately, these stories succeed because they provide readers with an
opportunity to become invested in recognisable characters who are
struggling with the impacts of world in which uncontrolled AMR is no longer
a possibility but represents a frightening reality.
David A. Kirby (University of Manchester)
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