Genes and Ancient Remedies May Help Fight Antibiotic Resistance

szczys writes: We've been hearing about it for years; bacteria are developing resistance to antibiotics and evolving into what are called superbugs. Some forecast the end of our ability to combat infection, but humanity has a knack for making breakthroughs that carry everyone forward. Dan Maloney looked at what is being done to combat antibiotic-resistance and the answer combines new technology with old remedies. It turns out that there are many ancient cures that successfully combat infections (video); they're just mixed in among a lot of cruft. More modern efforts focus on attacking bacteria on the genetic level which is a research area just getting itself up to speed now.

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Mostly dupe article

[tomhath]

The ancient cure was covered here on /. about six months ago; it's a poison so of course it kills bacteria (among other things).

Regarding the genetic research, it is indeed a major area of diagnosis and treatment. At this point it's mostly diagnosis - if you can identify the resistance genes a bacteria has you can select the appropriate antibiotic much sooner.