Bacteria race ahead of drugs
Falling behind: Deadly infections increasingly able to beat antibiotics
(San Francisco Chronicle) - At a busy microbiology lab in San Francisco, bad bugs are brewing inside vials of human blood, or sprouting inside petri dishes, all in preparation for a battery of tests.
These tests will tell doctors at UCSF Medical Center which kinds of bacteria are infecting their patients, and which antibiotics have the best chance to knock those infections down.
With disturbing regularity, the list of available options is short, and it is getting shorter.
Dr. Jeff Brooks has been director of the UCSF lab for 29 years, and has watched with a mixture of fascination and dread how bacteria once tamed by antibiotics evolve rapidly into forms that practically no drug can treat.
"These organisms are very small," he said, "but they are still smarter than we are."
(San Francisco Chronicle) - At a busy microbiology lab in San Francisco, bad bugs are brewing inside vials of human blood, or sprouting inside petri dishes, all in preparation for a battery of tests.
These tests will tell doctors at UCSF Medical Center which kinds of bacteria are infecting their patients, and which antibiotics have the best chance to knock those infections down.
With disturbing regularity, the list of available options is short, and it is getting shorter.
Dr. Jeff Brooks has been director of the UCSF lab for 29 years, and has watched with a mixture of fascination and dread how bacteria once tamed by antibiotics evolve rapidly into forms that practically no drug can treat.
"These organisms are very small," he said, "but they are still smarter than we are."
posted by BP News Bureau | 11:51 AM
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