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What are the best strategies to deal with the problem of multi-drug resistant bacteria?
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November 27th, 2009
Paul W. Ewald is an evolutionary biologist, specializing in the evolution of infectious disease. He asks the question: Can we domesticate germs?
Ewald reasons that, for the control of infectious diseases, alternative strategies should be privileged over the never-ending development of more new drugs. The central idea consists of creating conditions that favor the less virulent variants of pathogenic microbes — in contrast to the present rise in drug-resistant strains due to the overuse of anti-infective medicines.
Wolves were aggressive. Dogs were domesticated by humans. Could this strategy work for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis for example? Could TB evolve toward mildness?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=176adlNeRy8
Which strategies will be most successful long term?
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