3 ms·
This resistance scares me a great deal, especially as a new dad. I'm hopeful that in the coming years we'll be able to target bacteria and viruses more specifi
by sailfast 13y ago
This resistance scares me a great deal, especially as a new dad. I'm hopeful that in the coming years we'll be able to target bacteria and viruses more specifically using nano-technology and other tools at a cost effective level (admittedly I don't have a lot of knowledge in this area but I'm hopeful.)
If all else fails, I guess we'll depend on the cycles of nature's adaptations and break out a new set of antibacterials every 50 years or so depending on the resistance trends we see crop up and hope we don't lose too many humans in the process. At any rate, I'm glad lots of smart people are working on this problem.
- mesaaz 13y agoThere is reason for guarded optimism if we can eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, irresponsible use of antibiotics: The capacity to resist antibiotics extracts a small metabolic/competitive "tax" on bacteria. In the presence of antibiotics, the costs of this tax are outweighed by the obvious benefits of antibiotic resistance. In an environment without antibiotics, the costs of the tax outweigh their benefits, so these antibiotic-resistant bacteria will eventually be outgrown by "normal" bacteria. If we can discipline ourselves to use antibiotics only when necessary, gradually antibiotic-resistant bacteria should become less common. Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen until the antibiotic-resistance problem becomes much more serious.
- gibwell 13y agoWe can't discipline ourselves because there are giant vested interests in selling antibiotics and none in resisting buying them.
- penguindev 13y agoI don't know why you were down voted; you had a logical argument. There's no greed like short term greed.