Antibiotics

Scientists are pleased with preliminary tests for a new cure for MRSA, the deadly antibiotic-resistant infection. But it’s not a fancy new technology: The new remedy was found in an Anglo-Saxon medical book that’s more than 1000 years old.

McDonald’s in the US will be limiting the use of anitbiotics in chickens. Is this a good thing? Let’s back up a bit. Why do farmers even use antibiotics and what’s so bad about eating a chicken with antibiotics in it?

Antibiotics, among the most extraordinary drugs of the last hundred years, mostly come from a very ordinary source: dirt. But that source has been slowly exhausted, since 99 percent of the microbes in dirt can’t be cultured in a lab. Now, a group of scientists has developed a new technique for cultivating bacteria on their home turf, so to speak: right in the dirt, where they grow best. The results are a game-changer.

Mary McKenna’s newest book looks at an issue that could be a matter of life and death for all of us. It’s the question of antibiotic resistance, an issue that is becoming much worse.

The US government has been slow to respond to the health threat posed by the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock. But consumer concern about antibiotic resistance is growing, and that’s leading some US companies to start changing their ways.