I can't think of the last time I saw a headline on the front page of HN about the importance of solving open defecation. I see headlines about creating new treatments for super bugs pretty regularly.
We basically know how to solve open defecation: build toilets and sewage systems.
I think we could largely solve open defecation in five years if we really wanted to. But we aren't throwing resources at it like crazy because it isn't a "sexy" issue and because first world wealthy people don't see it as directly relevant to their lives. They see it as "being nice to poor people in developing nations," not as an urgent global priority because it's fueling the creation of antibiotic resistant infections which can be exported within 24 hours to their country by someone jumping on a plane before they are symptomatic.
And I really can't recall ever seeing a headline explicitly linking the two things. But they are linked.
Open defecation costs $US260b globally
https://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/open-defecation-...
Price to pay: Antibiotic-resistant infections cost $2 billion a year
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2018/03/price-pay...
We basically know how to solve open defecation: build toilets and sewage systems.
I think we could largely solve open defecation in five years if we really wanted to. But we aren't throwing resources at it like crazy because it isn't a "sexy" issue and because first world wealthy people don't see it as directly relevant to their lives. They see it as "being nice to poor people in developing nations," not as an urgent global priority because it's fueling the creation of antibiotic resistant infections which can be exported within 24 hours to their country by someone jumping on a plane before they are symptomatic.
And I really can't recall ever seeing a headline explicitly linking the two things. But they are linked.
http://resistancecontrol.info/2017/prevention-first-tackling...