4.6.18 How an ‘evolutionary race’ exists between pathogens and drug developers

The evolutionary arms race between bacteria and drug developers is, at the moment, tipped against humans. There are over 100 different types of antibiotic and in the 40years since their development 4 species of  bacterium have developed resistance against  all  of    them.

E.g. Methicillin Resistant Staphyloccus Aureus (MRSA) has been named the Superbug, because we have do drugs left that can kill it.

Unless drug developers discover another branch of antibiotics we’re not currently using (i.e. another way of targeting prokaryotic structures without damaging eukaryotic ones) there may well be a global pandemic of resistant bacteria.