• Question: How do you feel about the mutating bacteria that is becoming immune to antibacteria? Do you think its possible to find new cures and soloutions?

    Asked by smudgeh101 to Luke, John, Laura, Rob, Ruth on 20 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Laura Finney

      Laura Finney answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      I think antibiotic resistance is a huge problem and if we don’t use less of them or find a new cure we will be in big trouble.

      There is a lot of research in this area of research at the moment because a lot of people will die if we can no longer use antibiotics. Their importance cannot be stressed enough.

      I think we will find new ways to kill bacteria but I’m not sure how effective of long term these solutions will be. The bacteria could mutate again. I think we will be fighting this battle for a long time.

    • Photo: Robert Williams

      Robert Williams answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      I feel that we as a society have overused antibiotics.
      See my answer to a related question – we need to cut down on antibiotic use to allow our natural defences to get back in tune with what they were designed to do.

    • Photo: Luke Williams

      Luke Williams answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      Two particular problems exist. The first is the constant use of antibiotics in animal production. That has to stop, and stop immediately. Not only is it unnecessary, it actually harms the animals by permanently affecting their microbiome, or the levels of different types of bacteria that they have in them. Lastly, the overuse of antibiotics induces resistance which then spreads wildly.

      The second major problem is that people in industrialised countries expect their doctors to dispense antibiotics for their illnesses, regardless of what they are. This also has to stop, and in the UK it is getting better, but it may be too little too late. By way of example, I cannot recall the last time I had antibiotics.

      The reason we are running out of antibiotics that work is because there is no incentive for a pharmaceutical company to actually discover new ones. They don’t make enough money, and they certainly won’t if the aim is to have one kept in reserve. Governments need to spend a great deal more money on research to find more antibiotics.

      One possible route is to utilise old Soviet Union research into phages, which very effectively kill bacteria. Typically though, there is a phage for each bacteria which would require a large number to be developed. There is also a key issue of getting the phage to the bacteria to kill it. I think it would work well to kill bacteria in hospitals, but not necessarily in the body.

      Another area of investigation is antibacterial paint, which works very effectively at killing any bacteria that land on it.

    • Photo: Ruth Patchett

      Ruth Patchett answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      Bacteria becoming immune to antibiotics is quite a big problem that I think will be one of the major challenges of our generation. While we need to find new cures for these bacteria it is also important that we stop, or slow down other bacteria from gaining resistance. This means doctors need to be careful about how often they prescribe antibiotics.

Comments