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New research shows that the current strategy of ‘antibiotic mixing’ doesn’t work.
Marvellous maggots.
Yamni Nigam
They may make you feel squeamish but maggots have some incredible medicinal benefits.
Antibiotic use is a big issue as the more we use, the more likely bugs are to grow resistant, rendering them useless.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Health minister Sussan Ley said Australia’s use of antibiotics in general practice is 20% above the OECD average. Is that right?
In us, on us and all around us.
Microbes image via www.shutterstock.com.
Long viewed simply as ‘germs,’ the hidden half of nature turns out to be crucial to the health of people and plants.
Tackling antimicrobial resistance relies on us tackling the interrelated areas of human, animal and environmental health.
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The federal government is tackling antimicrobial resistance with a ‘One Health’ approach. But what is One Health and what can it offer that other approaches haven’t?
A contaminated water sign on the sand following a rainstorm in Imperial Beach, California, December 2014.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Resistant bacteria enter our aging sewer infrastructure and may eventually end up in the environment through sewage spills.
Close-up of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock
Poor testing methods and antibiotic use by GPs and urologists has left thousands of women with crippling infections.
A serendipitous discovery that saves millions of lives and garnered two Nobel prizes.
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The serendipitous discovery of penicillin is a testament to the importance of observation.
Welcomina/Shutterstock
It could yet become a powerful weapon in our medical arsenal.
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Irrational prescriptions are a major global health problem. The World Health Organisation estimates that more than half of all medicines are inappropriately prescribed, dispensed or sold.
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Food-borne diseases will continue to thrive unless Africa’s meat inspection programmes are upgraded.
Scientists are excited they’ve found potential new antibiotics – in us.
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Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 and revolutionised the treatment of bacterial infections. Ever since then we have been searching for new antibiotics.
shutterstock.
Antibiotics image via www.shutterstock.com.
Doctors know that inappropriate prescribing can lead to antibiotic resistance. So why do they keep doing it?
Bacteria have been developing resistance to antibiotics for over a billion years.
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Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria change in a way that prevents the antibiotic from working in its normal manner. There are several ways in which this can happen.
Everyone says the solution to antibiotic-resistant superbugs is to use antibiotics less often – but it’s not happening.
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Panic has spread with the discovery of a bacterium in the United States that is resistant to the last bastions of antibiotic resistance.
When the drugs don’t work.
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When the hugging had to stop: life in a post-antibiotic era.
Colonies of E. coli bacteria.
CDC/Handout via Reuters
Here are highlights from The Conversation US’ coverage of antibiotics and how scientists are trying to combat resistant bacteria.
They might look like an alien species, but these bacteria-eating viruses could be the next big thing in the fight against infectious diseases.
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The virus that could cure antibiotic resistant infections.
An x-ray showing a pair of lungs infected with TB (tuberculosis).
Luke MacGregor/Reuters
Many people in the U.S. have no idea that TB is still found here, or what a major health risk it poses in other parts of the world.
A quantum dot: A high-resolution transmission electron micrograph of cadmium telluride nanoparticles. (The scale bar in the lower right is 2 nanometers long, or two millionths of a millimeter.)
Nagpal Group, University of Colorado
Quantum dots - minuscule semiconductor particles with specific light-absorption properties - can kill drug-resistant superbugs without harming the surrounding healthy tissue.