There’s a lot of, well, not-so-fab things in the pipeline for humanity. Between riding out the remainder of Trump‘s term and dealing with the impending crapstorm that is our ageing population crisis, we better give some serious thought to our collective futures. But of all the cooked things heading towards us, there’s none set to be worse than humanity’s resistance to antibiotics.
In case you’re not across it, antibiotic resistance occurs when people overuse and misuse antibiotics, causing bacteria to change more drastically than Miley Cyrus post-Hannah Montana in order to protect themselves from an antibiotic. When bacteria’s exposed to an antibiotic, their genes mutate – allowing them to ‘resist’ the antibiotic. Subsequently, it doesn’t do a whole heap to the bacteria, which ain’t what you want. Oh, and the more antibiotics that are used, the more resistant the bacteria is to ‘em. It’ll mean that a truckload of common infections may eventually become untreatable with medicines.
So, just how bad could this get? NPS MedicineWise, a not-for-profit enabling better decision-making when it comes to medicine and medical tests, reckons things are going to get REAL:
The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, commissioned by the UK Prime Minister in 2014 estimates that if antibiotic resistance continues to spread, the problem will cause 10 million deaths globally by 2050. Australia has one of the highest antibiotic prescription rates globally, with over 30 million prescriptions issued annually.
To help keep this issue front of mind, NPS MedicineWise has partnered with American Express Openair Cinemas to host a national short film competition – and to sweeten the deal, they’ve got $10K worth of prizes up for grabs.
The competition itself will have two categories; individuals under 18 and Australian residents over the age of 18. Submissions in both categories need to be 30-seconds long, produced on a smartphone/camera, and explore the theme of ‘Preserve the Power’. A winner from each category will be picked, and they’ll each score $5k. Not bad, right?
They’ll be judged by some very-in-the-know movie folks, before a shortlist is drawn and then aired at the eight American Express Openair Cinemas locations across Australia in front of thousands.
Then, the final winners will be announced at an activation at Bondi Beach on Feb 28.
So if you’re keen on a challenge that’ll help fight the good fight, then get a submission in before 7 January 2018 HERE.
