How do we beat bacteria?

[Randy]

Antibiotics are one of the miracles of modern medicine. Sir Alexander Fleming’s Nobel prize-winning discovery led to medicines that fought some of the deadliest diseases and made surgery, transplants and chemotherapy possible. Yet this legacy is in danger – in Europe around 25,000 people die each year of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Our drug pipeline has been sputtering for decades and we’ve been making the problem worse through overprescription and misuse of antibiotics – an estimated 80% of US antibiotics goes to boosting farm animal growth. Thankfully, the advent of DNA sequencing is helping us discover antibiotics we never knew bacteria could produce. Alongside innovative, if gross-sounding, methods such as transplanting “good” bacteria from fecal matter, and the search for new bacteria deep in the oceans, we may yet keep abreast in this arms race with organisms 3bn years our senior.

Thoughts?

 

[Smiley]

We don't. It is an ongoing battle neither side can win.

 

[Merciless]

We will never ever beat bacteria. Bacteria is rapidly mutating and constantly forming, it’s impossible also we rely on a lot of good bacterias to live.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

also we rely on a lot of good bacterias to live.

Was just going to mention that!

 

[Merciless]

Was just going to mention that!

It’s true we need bacteria.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

It’s true we need bacteria.

The more germs you're exposed to, the stronger your immune system

 

[Merciless]

The more germs you're exposed to, the stronger your immune system

To an extent I do agree

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

To an extent I do agree

It's true, but yeah too many can kill you.

 

[Merciless]

It's true, but yeah too many can kill you.

We are fighting a losing battle lol

 

[Webster]

We don't. It is an ongoing battle neither side can win.

Its' nature's version of a Lensman Arms Race....quoting TV Tropes,

Humanity has entered into an arms race against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Due to antibiotic overuse and misuse, several deadly diseases has evolved resistance to antibiotics. Doctors now have to use ever more powerful antibiotics and medical researchers search for new antibiotics, but the bacteria slowly develop immunity to the more powerful and new antibiotics.

Related to the antibiotic resistance example above, there is the Red Queen hypothesis in evolution. The hypothesis states that organisms are all evolving "against" each other just to stay on even terms (giraffes evolve to eat tree leaves, the trees evolve tannin that makes the leaves taste bad when they produce it. Then the giraffes learn to eat a bit and move around, the trees release chemicals so that all the trees step up their tannin production, and so on).