A poster from a world summit in Hong Kong on preparing for worldwide pandemics in June 2010. Despite efforts to develop plans, none is yet in place.
Vincent Yu/AP Photo
Triclosan, an ingredient in soap and many household cleansers, has gained a bad reputation. A recent study looking for a way to boost an antibiotic, however, found that tricloscan did a great job.
Clostridium difficile bacteria causes diarrhea and inflammation of the colon.
By Kateryna Kon/shutterstock.com
A new type of antibiotic uses DNA to fight a common deadly microbe, Clostridium difficile. These new drugs are inexpensive and adaptable and can be modified to target any bacterium, lowering the chance of drug resistance.
Getting rid of this scourge is nothing to be sneezed at.
Cattle that are grass-fed, antibiotic- and growth hormone-free gather at a farm in Oregon in 2015. There’s a debate over whether antibiotic use in livestock makes germs more resistant to the drugs, and results in infections being passed on to humans who consume the meat.
(AP Photo/Don Ryan)
The use of antibiotics in raising livestock is complex. We could be moving towards a less-than-ideal result due to poor understanding, over-simplistic messaging and a rush for competitive advantage.
Bacteria in the dish on the left are sensitive to antibiotics in the paper discs. The ones on the right are resistant to four of the seven antibiotics.
Dr. Graham Beards
Superbugs used to pose the greatest risk to people with compromised immune systems and those who had surgery. But their sexual transmission means antibiotic resistance can spread much more widely.
High-tech ways to scan nature’s own creations.
Caleb Foster/Shutterstock.com
Pharmaceutical companies focus on small molecules they’ve devised – and can easily patent. But nature’s already come up with many antibacterial compounds that drug designers could use to make medicines.
A giant ant carries a dead fellow in the name of cleanliness.
Dupont/Wikipedia
Inserting a random DNA mishmash into a plant or bacterium directs it to make a novel protein. Sifting through the resulting molecules, researchers may find ones have medical or agricultural uses.
John Gerrard says a developed city like Sydney could not cope with an epidemic of the scale of the recent Ebola outbreak.
UNMEER/Martine Perret/Flickr
Speaking with: Dr. John Gerrard on infectious diseases
The Conversation, CC BY-ND23,2 MB(download)
William Isdale speaks to Dr. John Gerrard about the constant threat of infectious diseases and what we can do to prevent a deadly pandemic from establishing itself in Australia.