Dr. John Cahill, a member of the Empowered Health News Medical Board discusses some of the challenges we face with infectious diseases that are constantly emerging and changing. SARS is an example of a virus that until several years ago, we had never heard about. So the possibility of new viruses emerging is a very real threat. Another challenge we face is bacteria evolving and growing resistant to antibiotics. It's becoming a huge problem in the developed world where we take antibiotics for granted. Doctors are constantly prescribing antibiotics and patients routinely expect to receive them for any number of minor infections. This gross distribution of antibiotics has contributed to the formation of "superbugs" that are resistant to the antibiotics we typically use. The reality is that we don't have the technology or the resources to continue developing the drugs needed to fight off all these mutations and resistance strains that keep developing.
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 in Video
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Posted on September 17th, 2008 in News
ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2008)
— Infectious disease experts warn that new drugs are urgently needed to treat six drug-resistant bacteria that cause most hospital infections and increasingly escape the effects of antibiotics.
The ESKAPE pathogens—as these six bad bugs have been dubbed—are still on the loose more than four years after the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) first drew attention to the growing shortage of effective antibiotics. As the crisis of antibiotic resistance continues to grow, the latest IDSA "Bad Bugs, No Drugs" report examines the trickle of Continue reading