Dutch television host shares personal experience with superbug infection

Daphne Deckers is a Dutch author, television host and actor. She campaigns to raise awareness about antibiotic resistance, following her personal experience with an E. coli superbug infection in 2014.

When she started feeling poorly, her doctor diagnosed it as a bladder infection and prescribed antibiotics. But the symptoms failed to improve, and eventually Deckers ended up being hospitalized twice. It was then that she learnt she had a multidrug resistant E. coli infection. Such an infection can be treated with a total of eight different types of antibiotics. In Deckers’ case, seven of those did not work. Luckily, the eighth and final antibiotic finally beat the infection.

“I don’t know what will happen if and when superbug bacteria become resistant to the remaining antibiotics, but I can tell you that having this type of infection has an enormous impact on your life,” says Deckers. “Antibiotics are precious – when they stop working – we don’t have an alternative available yet. We must handle them with care.”