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How Do We Fix Antibiotics?

How Do We Fix Antibiotics?

From Komodo dragons to Dutch pigs – some promising solutions to the antibiotics crisis

The Inquiry · BBC World Service

October 25, 201622m 58s

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Show Notes

By 2050, experts predict that drug-resistant infections will kill one person every three seconds unless the world’s governments take drastic steps now. But given the complexity of antibiotics resistance, what should their plan be? Some of the possible fixes involve changing ingrained human behaviours such as doctors’ prescribing habits and the intensive farming of animals. But other promising solutions to avert a post-antibiotics apocalypse come from surprising sources. Scientists are now hunting for undiscovered fungi in the world’s most remote places while other researchers stay in the lab deciphering the language of bacteria.

(Photo: A depiction of some EHEC bacteria Credit: HZI/Getty Images)