A new report estimates that by 2050, 40 per cent of all infections will be resistant to antimicrobial treatment. This will directly cause 13,700 previously preventable deaths.
Healthcare workers in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to laboratory diagnostics and often have to guess which antibiotics to use for presumed infections.
Many articles describe the rise of superbugs - bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic drugs - as inevitable. But society has the knowledge to stop the spread of these microbes.
As measles cases surge, people blame parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. A sociologist who has studied public health says anti-vaxxers may not be so different from the rest of us.
Monica Slavin, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre; Arjun Rajkhowa, The University of Melbourne; Karin Thursky, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, and Megan Crane, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Candida auris is a fungus which breeds most commonly in health-care settings. It’s cause for concern because it’s hard to detect, and is resistant to many anti-fungal drugs.
As antibiotic resistance increases globally, the heat is on to find new alternatives to treat infections. Chemists can get a head start by looking at compounds produced in nature by fishes’ microbes.
Bacteria are becoming resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics. These expensive, hard-to-treat infections are prompting physicians to reassess using viruses to destroy bacteria.
Antibiotic resistance is common in bacteria where there’s a large human population and poor sanitation. For the first time however, it’s been found in the remote Arctic.
Our bodies have a set of defenses that are finely tuned for killing invading microbes. With rising cases of drug-resistant bacteria, maybe boosting our natural defenses is the best medicine.
As new viruses “jump” from wildlife to humans and we struggle with antimicrobial resistance and even climate change, a new interdisciplinary approach to human health might just save the day.