Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Researchers Find "Achilles Heel" of Drug Resistant Bacteria

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-your-medicine dept.

Rambo Tribble writes Researchers in Britain are reporting that they have found a way to prevent bacteria from forming the "wall" that prevents antibiotics from attacking them. “It is a very significant breakthrough,” said Professor Changjiang Dong, from the University of East Anglia's (UAE) Norwich Medical School. “This is really important because drug-resistant bacteria is a global health problem. Many current antibiotics are becoming useless, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Many bacteria build up an outer defence which is important for their survival and drug resistance. We have found a way to stop that happening," he added. This research provides the platform for urgently-needed new generation drugs.

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Easier by Hamsterdan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Stop disinfecting and over-cleaning everything. Remove the Purell crap. Let kids eat dirt.

    1- It will force people to build their immune system (I'm not always sick like younger generations)
    2- If you stop killing 99.999% of all bacteria, it will put an end to super-bacteria (the 0.0001% that survive and reproduce)

    I *never* use any kind of medicine (unless I have no choice), I never use band aids on nicks and scratches (don't disinfect them either). I have no food intolerance, food allergies or other weird ailment.

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    1. Re:Easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I never use band aids on nicks and scratches (don't disinfect them either)

      I didn't once, and I ended up in hospital on a drip with an infection in my finger.

      I'm not always sick like so many others, either.

      Random chance has a bit to do with it.

    2. Re:Easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's a reason average life expectancy used to be 35 years.

    3. Re:Easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're missing the really troublesome one: low-level antibiotic use in livestock. As a society, it's cheaper to not treat sick animals. Just keep them out of human food, turn them into pet food. Cats and dogs are much more capable of dealing with the meat of sick animals. That's a predator thing, their predecessors have been hunting sick animals for millions of years. of course, what's profitable to society isn't always profitable to farmers. They'll make more money by using antibiotics and butchering the somewhat sick cows.

  2. Re:HOPE to exploit it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well they did make a discovery. What do you suggest? That science not raise funds for continued research? Nothing was mentioned in the article to send them money btw. Money is needed for science, those who make advances should get it.