Close-up of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
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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.
Chop, chop.
USFDA
How slow diagnosis of bacterial infections is exacerbating our antibiotics problem.
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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.
Two-thirds of children have already received antibiotics by the time they are one year old.
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If you have a ten-month-old baby, what do you need to know? What do you need to ask your GP about the benefits and risks of antibiotics?
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.
Amazing things lurk up there…
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In the battle against superbugs, you’d be amazed where we might find the cures of the future.
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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.
Chimpanzees self medicate by eating rough leaves to get rid of parasites.
Nigel Swales/wikimedia
A number of monkey species eat rough leaves, soils and charcoal to treat or prevent diseases.
When the drugs don’t work.
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When the hugging had to stop: life in a post-antibiotic era.
Yuangeng Zhang/Shutterstock
Arguing about the pros and cons of fat in our diet takes the focus away from the real nutritional demon: processed foods.
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.
Uncollected rubbish provides food and shelter for rodents which can spread plague if they pick up the bacteria.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Plague, one of the deadliest diseases in the world, has been reported in several African countries in the past decade.
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.
Antibiotics can help, but at lower doses and shorter durations than doctors tend to prescribe.
Acne via www.shutterstock.com.
While antibiotics can kill the bacteria associated with acne, it’s their anti-inflammatory effects, not their antimicrobial effects, that yield the biggest skin-clearing benefits.