While pharmaceutical companies are racing to find a vaccine for COVID, research and development of new antibiotics has slowed , according to Pew research.
Now the WHO is calling for a bold, unified agenda focused on prevention and finding new medicines. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. I accept. Take action on UpLink. Forum in focus. Read more about this project. Explore context.
Explore the latest strategic trends, research and analysis. Antimicrobial resistance is a top 10 global public health threat, according to the World Health Organization. Medicine overuse — in humans and agriculture — has exacerbated the problem.
Antimicrobial-resistant infections could cause 10 million deaths a year by , according to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week aims to promote action to limit the risks. Have you read? Many people recover from MRSA infections, but some cases can be life-threatening. When antibiotics are needed, doctors usually prescribe a mild one before trying something more aggressive like vancomycin.
Such newer antibiotics can be more toxic and more expensive than older ones. Eventually, bacteria will develop resistance to even the new drugs. In recent years, some superbugs, such as vancomycin-resistant Enterococci bacteria, remain unaffected by even this antibiotic of last resort.
Ideally, doctors would be able to quickly identify the right antibiotic to treat a particular infection. But labs need days or even weeks to test and identify the bacteria strain.
Until the lab results come in, antibiotic treatment is often an educated guess. Fowler says faster diagnostic testing offers one of the best hopes for treating infectious diseases. Technology is catching up, he says, and new research in this area looks promising. Genetic studies by NIH-supported researchers such as Segre and Fowler are also helping us understand the unique characteristics of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Their findings could point the way to innovative new treatments. While scientists search for ways to beat back these stubborn bacteria, you can help by preventing the spread of germs so we depend less on antibiotics in the first place. The best way to prevent bacterial infections is by washing your hands frequently with soap and water. And use antibiotics only as directed. We can all do our part to fight drug-resistant bacteria. Recognizing RSV.
Editor: Harrison Wein, Ph. Managing Editor: Tianna Hicklin, Ph. More Details Original Title. Other Editions 2. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
To ask other readers questions about Viruses vs. Superbugs , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Viruses vs.
Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Viruses vs. Aug 06, Dennis Littrell rated it it was amazing. Interesting history of phage therapy and its possible future This is mostly a history of bacteriophage therapy with an emphasis on the pioneering work of French bacteriologist Felix d'Herelle beginning before World War I.
Much of the early work was done during the Great War in places like the Soviet Union to combat bacterial infection associated with battlefield wounds. D'Herelle himself went to such places as India to study cholera phages and was able to save the lives of many people. Bacteriopha Interesting history of phage therapy and its possible future This is mostly a history of bacteriophage therapy with an emphasis on the pioneering work of French bacteriologist Felix d'Herelle beginning before World War I.
Bacteriophages are viruses that exclusively attack bacteria much the same way other viruses attack our cells by invading and taking over the DNA machinery to reproduce themselves. After getting the bacterium to produce perhaps as many as a thousand or more viruses the phages burst open the bacteria cells walls with enzymes and flow out to attack other bacteria. With such a multiplier effect it doesn't take long to infect and destroy billions of bacteria.
Typically there are some bacteria that are immune to the particular phage but their numbers are so small that our immune systems finish them off. Some of the cures in the book have been spectacular. Hausler reports on dying patients up and feeling fine in a day or two. Over the years there were many such successes. However, because the actual studies and experiments were conducted with less rigor than modern standards require and because there were dosage problems and unsubstantiated claims, bacteriophage therapy has had a checkered history.
When penicillin and other antibiotics came into widespread use in the forties, phage therapy was all but forgotten. Now with bacteria becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics, interest in phage therapy has returned. Hausler devotes a significant portion of the book describing the problems and promises of phage therapy and explains why progress toward using phages against resistant bacteria has been so slow.
Where it seems likely that new successes will occur and are occurring is in veterinarian medicine. Until it becomes easier and cheaper to get phage products through the FDA in the US, most of the work will probably be with animals, especially those animals like cows, pigs, and chickens that become our food.
With part of the problem of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics due to their use in animal feed, using phage therapy instead, or in combination with antibiotics, could become widespread. While it is true that bacteria evolve and become resistant to their phages, it is also true that phages themselves can evolve to bypass bacterial resistance. In other words there is a primordial "arms war" going on between phages and bacteria of which we can take advantage.
One method microbiologists use to find phages that work against specify bacteria is to take water from sewers where the bacteria have been excreted from people or animals and search that water for phages.
There will be found the phages that have evolved to attack the bacteria that have evolved! The book has plenty of endnotes and a good index. Of special interest perhaps are the appendices, one listing common bacteria and what they do to us, and the other detailing the advantages and disadvantages of phage therapy.
All and all this is a good introduction to an exciting and promising area of medical science. But note well the question mark at the end of the book's subtitle: "A Solution to the Antibiotic Crisis? Sep 25, Stidmama rated it liked it Shelves: college-textbooks.
This is a good book. I have both the English and German versions, and the English is a good translation of the original. This is not a good book to read if you panic when hearing about medical problems.
It is an excellent book if you are willing to hear bad news AND learn ways to make the situation better. It is becoming out of date, but the fundamentals are the same: microbes are capable of mutation, as are all life forms; some mutations create more easily spread or more resistant forms; there ar This is a good book. It is becoming out of date, but the fundamentals are the same: microbes are capable of mutation, as are all life forms; some mutations create more easily spread or more resistant forms; there are ways that humans operate that increase the mutation rate and therefore the likelihood that a microbe will develop into a more dangerous pathogen; there are many simple things that humans can do to reduce both mutation rate and transmission of pathogens to humans.
There are good histories of the study of microbes not all are pathogens, of course and the ways some microbes can be used to prevent the dangers of other microbes, and a description of some current lines of investigation.
View 2 comments. Jan 26, Hartley rated it it was amazing Shelves: biology , current-events , drury-college-of-natural-history , ecology , history , human. Central theme page and very well noted. Sep 30, N. Fedorak rated it liked it. Acceptable, but more indepth info on the virology techniques would be useful. May 09, Mathcos rated it it was amazing. For those of you interested, a lot has been done since.
0コメント