The Rise of the Superbug | Al Jazeera English

Summary

This special program investigates the alarming rise of drug-resistant bacteria, or superbugs, which now kill hundreds of thousands annually and could reach 10 million deaths a year by 2050. It explores the causes, from overuse in human medicine and livestock farming to poor sanitation in developing countries, and the urgent need for global action. Innovative solutions like whole genome sequencing and new diagnostic tools are highlighted, alongside the challenges of developing new antibiotics in the face of a broken market.

Takeaways

• 🌐 The rise of superbugs is a global problem, affecting both human and animal health, with untreatable diseases becoming more prevalent.
• 💊 Antibiotic resistance is a significant issue in India, where multidrug-resistant cases are common and sanitation challenges contribute to the spread of diseases.
• 🏥 Inadequate training and qualifications of health providers can exacerbate drug resistance, as incomplete prescriptions can lead to ineffective treatments.
• 🐔 Antibiotics are extensively used in animal farming, particularly in Kenya, where they are part of the daily diet for chickens, leading to increased resistance in animal populations.
• 🔬 The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is leading research in whole genome sequencing to understand how superbugs evolve and spread, which could help in tracking diseases in real-time.
• 🌱 The development of new antibiotics is crucial, but the process is slow and expensive, with the last antibiotic being introduced nearly 30 years ago.
• 🏭 Pharmaceutical companies are hesitant to invest in new antibiotic research due to the high costs and slow returns, necessitating incentives and global cooperation.
• 🏥 Hospitals are implementing measures to identify and isolate drug-resistant bacteria to prevent the spread of infections, but rapid diagnostics are needed to improve treatment.
• 🌳 Researchers are exploring natural environments to discover new microorganisms that could lead to the development of new antibiotics, addressing the limited diversity in lab settings.
• 💰 A proposed fund of up to three billion dollars could incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics, addressing the lack of new drugs in the market.

Q & A

What is the current global impact of superbugs in terms of mortality?

Superbugs are currently killing more than a hundred thousand, perhaps as many as a quarter of a million people around the world each year.

What could be the potential increase in deaths caused by superbugs by 2050 without action?

The number of deaths could grow to as many as 10 million a year by 2050.

What is the economic impact of superbugs projected to be over the next thirty-five years?

Superbugs are expected to cost the world's economies around a hundred trillion dollars over the next thirty-five years.

What is the situation of drug resistance in India, particularly in New Delhi?

In New Delhi, most cases seen in clinics are drug-resistant, and multidrug-resistant cases are common, posing a significant challenge for adults to get the right medical treatment.

How does the misuse of antibiotics contribute to drug resistance in tuberculosis?

Unqualified health providers often write incomplete prescriptions, which can lead to patients not taking the full course of antibiotics, allowing bacteria to mutate and develop resistance.

What role does sanitation play in the spread of drug-resistant diseases in communities?

Sanitation is a daily challenge in many communities, and poor sanitation can lead to the spread of drug-resistant illnesses through contaminated water and waste.

How are superbugs affecting animal health in the United States?

In the United States, 80% of the antibiotics sold each year are fed to animals, leading to an increase in superbugs in animal populations and a potential risk of spreading to humans.

What is the current state of antibiotic resistance in developing countries according to the International Livestock Research Institute?

Scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute have detected a rapid increase in bacterial resistance in developing countries, which is a significant problem affecting public health and livestock health.

What is the process of whole genome sequencing and why is it important in understanding superbugs?

Whole genome sequencing involves analyzing the entire DNA of a bacterium. It helps researchers understand how closely related different strains are and track how diseases spread, which is crucial in combating the spread of superbugs.

What are some of the challenges in developing new antibiotics?

Developing new antibiotics is challenging due to the high cost and slow process involved. Additionally, major pharmaceutical companies have largely exhausted the easily cultivable microorganisms in lab settings, limiting the diversity of potential new antibiotics.

What is the proposed solution to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics?

A fund that could payout up to three billion dollars to large pharmaceutical companies that develop new antibiotics has been suggested. This would help mitigate the downside risks for the pharmaceutical industry.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Global Impact of Superbugs

This paragraph introduces the global issue of drug-resistant bacteria, or superbugs, which are causing a significant rise in untreatable diseases, particularly highlighting the situation in India and Kenya. The script discusses the alarming statistics of superbug-related deaths and the potential economic impact. It also mentions a clinic in New Delhi where a young child has battled drug-resistant typhoid, illustrating the real-life implications of this health crisis. The paragraph sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the causes and consequences of antibiotic resistance.

05:00

🐓 Antibiotic Use in Animal Farming

The second paragraph delves into the role of antibiotic use in animal farming, especially in Kenya, and its contribution to the rise of superbugs. It describes how antibiotics are integrated into the daily diet of animals, leading to the development of resistant bacteria strains. The script also touches upon the potential for these superbugs to spread to humans through the food chain, emphasizing the interconnectedness of animal and human health. The paragraph underscores the urgency of addressing antibiotic overuse in agriculture to prevent further escalation of the problem.

10:03

🧬 The Science of Superbug Resistance

This paragraph focuses on the scientific aspect of superbug resistance, discussing the process of whole genome sequencing and its importance in understanding the evolution and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It details how researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute are using this technology to track and analyze superbugs, including the identification of a healthcare worker who inadvertently reintroduced a resistant strain into a hospital. The summary also touches on the challenges of developing new drugs to combat these resistant strains, given the high costs and slow pace of pharmaceutical research and development.

15:03

🛠️ Innovations in Antibiotic Resistance Testing

The fourth paragraph introduces the viewer to the practical challenges and innovations in testing for antibiotic resistance. It describes the process of antimicrobial sensitivity testing in a lab, using methods such as the disc diffusion test and the e-test to determine the effectiveness of different antibiotics against bacteria. The script also discusses the need for rapid diagnostics to improve the appropriate use of antibiotics and reduce the development of resistance. The paragraph highlights the importance of accurate and quick testing in the fight against superbugs.

20:05

🌿 Exploring New Antibiotic Sources

The final paragraph discusses the challenges and potential solutions in discovering new antibiotics to combat resistant bacteria. It mentions the difficulty of cultivating microorganisms from nature in a lab setting and introduces a new device, the AI chip, which aims to isolate and grow these microorganisms in a more natural environment. The script also addresses the economic barriers to antibiotic development and suggests a global fund to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to invest in new antibiotic research. The paragraph concludes with a call for better diagnostics, reduced antibiotic use in agriculture, and global education on the responsible use of antibiotics.

Keywords

💡Superbugs

Superbugs refer to bacteria that have developed resistance to multiple antibiotics, making them difficult to treat. They are a major theme in the video, as they pose a significant global health threat. The script mentions the rise of superbugs in various contexts, such as untreatable diseases in India and chicken farms in Kenya, highlighting their widespread impact.

💡Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to withstand the effects of antibiotics, rendering these drugs ineffective. This concept is central to the video, as it explains the growing problem of superbugs. The script discusses how drug resistance develops in bacteria and the challenges it poses to healthcare systems worldwide.

💡Multidrug-Resistant

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) refers to bacteria that are resistant to multiple drugs, often making them untreatable with standard antibiotics. The script uses this term to describe cases in India where patients have MDR infections, emphasizing the severity of the drug resistance problem.

💡Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygiene practices and conditions that prevent the spread of diseases. In the video, poor sanitation is highlighted as a factor contributing to the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in communities, particularly in developing countries where infrastructure may be lacking.

💡Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

Antimicrobial resistance is a broader term that includes resistance to not only antibiotics but also other antimicrobial drugs. The script uses AMR to discuss the global threat posed by resistant bacteria, including the potential for common infections to become untreatable.

💡Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a form of TB that is resistant to at least two of the most potent anti-TB drugs. The script mentions this as an example of a serious health issue resulting from drug resistance, highlighting the challenges in treating such diseases.

💡Antibiotics in Livestock

The use of antibiotics in livestock, particularly in chickens, pigs, and cattle, is discussed in the script as a significant contributor to the development of superbugs. The routine feeding of antibiotics to animals can lead to the spread of resistant bacteria, which can then potentially infect humans.

💡Whole Genome Sequencing

Whole genome sequencing is a method used to determine the complete DNA sequence of an organism. In the video, this technology is highlighted as a tool for understanding how superbugs evolve and spread. It is used to track the genetic changes in bacteria that lead to drug resistance.

💡Rapid Diagnostics

Rapid diagnostics refer to quick tests that can identify infections and their antibiotic susceptibility. The script mentions the need for such diagnostics to help in the timely and appropriate use of antibiotics, thereby reducing the development of drug resistance.

💡Insecticide Resistance

Insecticide resistance is the ability of insects, such as mosquitoes, to survive exposure to insecticides. The video discusses this in the context of malaria, where resistance can undermine efforts to control the disease by reducing the effectiveness of insecticides used to kill mosquitoes.

💡New Antibiotics

The development of new antibiotics is crucial to combat the rise of superbugs. The script discusses the challenges in creating new drugs, as well as initiatives to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to invest in this area. The need for new antibiotics is emphasized in light of the increasing prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria.

Highlights

Superbugs are responsible for over 100,000 deaths annually, with a potential to increase to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 without action.

Antibiotic resistance could cost the global economy up to 100 trillion dollars over the next 35 years.

In New Delhi, India, most cases of typhoid are now multidrug-resistant, posing a significant challenge for medical treatment.

Unqualified health providers contributing to drug resistance by issuing incomplete prescriptions.

Poor sanitation in communities can lead to the spread of drug-resistant illnesses.

The misuse of antibiotics in animal farming, particularly in Kenya, is contributing to the rise of superbugs.

80% of antibiotics sold in the United States are used in animal farming, leading to increased superbug infections in animals.

Scientists warn that common infections that are currently easily treated could become untreatable and fatal in the future.

The International Livestock Research Institute has detected a rapid increase in bacterial resistance in developing countries.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat to public health, requiring immediate action.

England's chief medical officer, Dr. Sally Davies, compares the threat of AMR to terrorism in terms of potential deaths.

Overprescribing of antibiotics by doctors and patient demand contribute to the development of drug resistance.

The developing world is at higher risk due to weaker health systems and over-the-counter availability of antibiotics.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute uses whole genome sequencing to understand how superbugs evolve and spread.

New diagnostic tools are being developed to quickly and accurately identify the right drugs to fight bacterial infections.

The lack of new antibiotics in the market is a significant concern, with the last one introduced almost 30 years ago.

A proposed 3 billion dollar incentive by economist Jim O'Neill aims to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics.

The development of the AI chip by Dr. Slava Epstein's team allows for the growth of microorganisms in a more natural setting, potentially leading to new antibiotics.

A combination of better diagnostics, reduced antibiotic use in animal farming, and global education campaigns are suggested to combat the superbug threat.

Transcripts

in this special program we track the

rise of the super bug from a growing

caseload of untreatable diseases in

India to Kenya's chicken farms where

antibiotics are part of the daily diet

and the problem inside the lab in the UK

with the DNA of superbugs a sequence

then tracked

we take a look at a tiny device

developed in the u.s. that could save

millions of lives

hello and welcome to the special program

looking at the growing global problem of

drug-resistant bacteria or superbugs

today superbugs killed more than a

hundred thousand perhaps as many as

quarter of a million people around the

world each year and that figure without

action could grow to as many as 10

million a year by 2015

that's more than a killed by cancer in a

recent survey done for the UK government

that's expected to cost the world's

economies around a hundred trillion

dollars over the next thirty five years

well in a moment we'll look at how that

drug resistance develops in bacteria and

why the drugs don't work but first Nidhi

Dutt visits a clinic and the outskirts

of the Indian capital New Delhi where

this global health threat is playing out

he's just 14 months old but for months

Aaron Shibu has been ill he had typhoid

and first saw doctor knee total var in

January it took two courses of treatment

but now finally he has the all-clear

since the time you know if we have

started our services almost most of the

cases that we have had our

drug-resistant cases most of them almost

all almost all of them have been

multidrug-resistant so it is a problem

for adults to getting the right medical

treatment is a growing challenge of them

because the media comes out that I mean

Carnival McCutchen I had a fever for a

long time and I couldn't eat I took lots

of medicine my neighbor even took me to

get an x-ray the doctor has an IV I got

medicines from one doctor and then

another and then another when the first

treatment didn't work I went to another

for help but then the second doctors

treatment didn't help either

kaypea it was only when she visited a

clinic close to her home that Manorama

was found to have drug-resistant

tuberculosis dr. Shelley Batra has spent

the last 20 years treating difficult TB

cases and says more and more drugs are

becoming ineffective against the disease

she partly blames unqualified health

providers they are informal providers

all around some of them are not

qualified to write a prescription so

when they write incomplete prescriptions

that is one way patients dead drug

resistance so training and upgrading the

skills of informal providers is very

much required if we want to prevent

these disease

once a drug-resistant strain of bacteria

like typhoid takes hold it is passed on

to others in a community through

contaminated water and waste sanitation

is a daily challenge for people in

communities like this and drug-resistant

illnesses are a growing threat where the

government has failed to fix the problem

at its source health workers have tried

to compensate by treating the spread of

illnesses with a host of medicines while

ad hoc treatment has done little to

contain harmful bacteria it's raised

important questions about the capacity

of India's healthcare system to deal

with diseases that affect millions of

people drug resistance is not just going

to lead to a huge number of deaths

millions of people are going to die due

to causes that could have been treated

doctors around the world have long been

aware of the potential threat of drug

resistance but now with the number of

cases on the rise that threat is real

they back calls for global action to

help stop superbugs and hope it will be

enough and won't come too late to

protect the health of the next

generation

when a patient arrives at a hospital

like General Hospital here in Qatar and

doctors suspect that they have an

illness which is drug-resistant all

samples are brought to a laboratory like

this one it's here that samples are

tested against a variety of antibiotics

to see if indeed they are drug-resistant

to enter see which antibiotic is the

most effective overseeing the lab is dr.

ibrahim how do you go about testing

these antibiotics yes we have here a

very highly quality scheme on program

for identification and performing

antimicrobial sensitivity testing this

is a disc which is impregnated with

antimicrobial and we look for the zone

of inhibition so essentially on this

petri dish you have a bacteria living

living bacteria and then these spots

away you put antibiotics exactly and you

can see which ones have killed the

bacteria very much in less effect

exactly we have a test here called the e

test this is a more precise test it tell

us how far is sensitive or poor far is

resistant

we've seen the impact superbugs have on

human health but an animal health it's

also a massive issue in the United

States 80% of the antibiotics sold each

year a fed to animals one survey

suggested 63,000 tons of antibiotics are

fed to chickens pigs and cattle each

year as a result superbugs are

increasing in animal populations and

whether the risk it will spread to human

populations it's a term that's been seen

in the developing world as well where

meat demand is growing fast

Malcolm Webb visited a chicken farm on

the outskirts of Nairobi in Kenya where

antibiotics are part of the daily diet

business is booming for Daniel karaoke

his chicken farms near Kenya's capital

Nairobi and key to his success are

antibiotics he puts them in their

drinking water every day but the

bacteria often become tough and

resistant and so then he changes to

another drug their claims that that

disease become persistent you'll find

that you have given the treatment as

required but maybe 50% of the bugs have

not been cured so what happens you have

to change the type of using because that

means it's not effective can I get

across the chicken and just a few

kilometers away in the city right let's

make it a half ticket in jail it's

takeaways like this where the chickens

end up everyday all across the

developing world more and more people

are eating food like this and not only

chicken but also all other kinds of meat

and animal products growing populations

mean there's more mouths to feed

and growing economies mean more and more

people can afford food like this in the

developed world most countries have

already reached their maximum meat

consumption but in the world's giants

emerging economies like China and Brazil

it's been growing for decades and it's

expected to grow for decades to come and

more meat means more antibiotics that

means more bacteria will become

resistant scientists say common

infections that are easily treated now

in the future will become untreatable

and fatal and not just in animals but in

people too

here at the headquarters of the

International Livestock Research

Institute scientists say they've

detected a rapid increase in bacterial

resistance in developing countries

biologist Timothy Robinson just

published a paper on it we're just

starting now to gather the magnitude of

the problem of antimicrobial resistance

developing and it's a problem that

affects absolutely everybody in the

world everybody is dependent on anti

microbials

for their public health and and for

their livestock's healthy as well and so

it's a massive problem that's just going

to get worse and worse unless we start

to deal with it now

food farmers like Daniel can't really

deal with this massive problem by

themselves keeping his chickens healthy

using antibiotics is what keeps his

family fed and his children in school in

developed countries farmers now use less

of the drugs because of regulation and

public pressure but farmers in the

developing world are going to need help

to do the same

let's take a look now at how drug

resistance develops take a bacteria like

e-coli we will have a coli in our gut

but some strains of it can cause

diarrhea contain it even death now

traditionally you would have treated

that with penicillin one of the first

antibiotics discovered thing is

penicillin causes that cell membranes to

rupture job done now the problem arises

when patients don't take the full course

of their antibiotics and Pepsi and Eve

antibiotics are of poor quality

this gives the bacteria the chance to

mutate and develop resistance to the

drug if this happens the drugs don't

work and the drug-resistant strain of

bacteria can fast become dominant last

year the World Health Organization said

that antimicrobial resistance has

reached all parts of the globe it's a

threat to public health everywhere and

action is required well one of those

also calling for action is dr. Sally

Davies she's England's chief medical

officer now sally you've described a

threat of antimicrobial resistance as

being as real as terrorism why did you

say that well if you think about it

terrorists aim to kill people but

actually don't kill very many whereas

AMR that's the bugs aiming to live and

as a result when they infect people they

kill the people and they're having great

success look at the data in Europe about

twenty five thousand deaths a year at a

conservative estimate that's more than

road traffic accidents it's just edging

ahead similar sorts of numbers in the

states but I think it's over in the far

east that it's even more worrying when

you hear about one child under the age

of five dying every five minutes of AMR

that is to say of infections that we

cannot treat with our present

antibiotics because the bacteria have

grown wise to the antibiotics and are

not killed by them

it's been reported that half the

antibiotics prescribed in the US and

2010 were unnecessary they weren't

actually necessary for the patient

surely doctors need to take some

responsibility for prescribing these

it's very difficult at the time of

prescribing to know what is necessary

and what isn't

we don't have rapid Diagnostics and

that's where in fact quick whole genome

scanning might help but we need rapid

Diagnostics until we have them what we

know is people think the patient has an

infection the patient thinks they have

an infection so you have to use

antibiotics blind

that is to say informed guesswork until

you have the results of cultures and

then you get bad behavior by patients

and clinical staff where the patient

says I've got a sore throat I must have

antibiotics it always goes to my chest

I must have antibiotics and the doctor

hasn't got the time or the energy to

debate this argue it and doesn't want to

take the miniscule risk that it might

not be viral and gives in I can

understand all sides but there is far

too much use of antibiotics if you look

at prescribing in Britain it's the same

in the States so I guess it is all over

the world you can see that some areas

prescribe double the number of

antibiotics as other areas so there must

be over prescribing we've seen how

devastating the effects of drug

resistance can be in a place like India

poor communities do you think this poses

more of a threat to the underdeveloped

world and countries without strong

health systems I am very worried about

the developing world if you look at the

work and the modeling that has been done

for the prime minister's independent

review on antimicrobial resistance led

by The Economist Jim O'Neill you can see

that they reckon that if we don't turn

the tide on this in 2050 there will be

10 million deaths here more than we have

dying at the moment of cancer every year

and that that will be predominantly in

the developing world

india-china they will all suffer and it

is to do with impart their health

systems as you develop health systems

you can have stronger mechanisms for

ensuring that the drugs are good quality

drugs that they're only used when

prescribed that they're backed up by

laboratory diagnosis and that they are

taken for a full course many people in

the developed world will do that but in

the developing world they'll go and buy

some drugs over-the-counter perhaps by

one day's amount and then if they feel

better they stop other people will buy a

handful and they'll share them out

around the family and that's assuming

they're good drugs rather than

counterfeit or falsified which adds to

the problem we'll hear more from dr.

Sally Davies in a moment but first let's

take a look at some of the work being

done to better understand how superbugs

evolve and how they spread around the

world the Wellcome Trust Sanger

Institute near Cambridge is a world

leader at this and showed Nadine barber

some of us recent research you might not

realize it but you're looking at a

medical revolution when it comes to

diseases researchers here at the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute aren't

just interested in what strain of a

bacterium is the cause they want to know

the entire DNA of the bug

they call it whole genome sequencing and

these machines are at the heart of it

they may look like high-tech

refrigerators but these sequences are at

the heart of the science that

researchers hope will one day allow them

to track diseases around the world in

real-time Julianne Parkhill heads a team

that's developing ways of tracking a

whole range of so-called superbugs which

had become resistant to antibiotics he

likens the approach to creating a family

tree of the bacteria so if I take the

bacterium from you and a bacterium from

me and I take the whole genome sequence

of both of them I can say how closely

related they are how long ago they

shared a common ancestor and therefore

how likely it is that you gave that back

here

me or I gave it to you last year when

scientists here were analyzing a

previous outbreak of the Mrs a bug in a

local hospital

medics called to say a baby on a ward

now had the infection so we put them in

a sequence we put the DNA from this

organism to ready on the signaling

machines and we identified that it was

part of that outbreak there had been a a

gap two months with no babies on the

ward having M RSA since the outbreak

that we were studying for

retrospectively and that gap meant that

that it couldn't be continuous

transmission between babies on the ward

and therefore there was likely to be the

involvement of health care worker in

reintroducing that strain into the ward

soon thanks to blood samples from all

the hospital staff they identified the

worker who'd reinfected the baby unit

that person was quickly treated and the

outbreak was contained in another part

of the Sanger Institute they're working

on a mass killer malaria they send the

samples here which have been extracted

which been taken from a patient's arm

blood that's been taken from infected

blood researchers are busy analyzing how

the Plasmodium parasites that caused the

illness in humans are becoming resistant

to anti-malarial drugs but they're also

trying to discover how the mosquitoes

which spread the parasites in the first

place become resistant to insecticides

to control malaria you won't do two

things you want to get rid of the

parasites in people who've got parasites

particularly if they're ill and you want

to stop the mosquitos transmitting

malaria and there are various strategies

for doing that such as getting people to

sleep under insecticide treated bed nets

we have to be concerned both about

whether we've got effective treatment

parasites and whether the bugs are

resistant to that equally we have to

have effective insecticides to get rid

of the mosquitoes and we are worried

about insecticide resistance in the

mosquitoes malaria affects hundreds of

millions of people every year and it's a

major cause of death among children in

parts of Africa experts are worried that

resistance to the frontline treatment

artemisinin

which has been increasing in Southeast

Asia could be repeated in sub-saharan

nations the death rate are from malaria

is very high or

despite the availability of effective

drugs it's already high so if the drugs

are not working and there is no

replacement drug handy then it's going

to be a disaster but that disaster need

never happened as long as the world can

share the lessons from the genetic

mutations that they're finding out about

here

one issue that experts say is

compounding the problem is we're not

coming up with enough new drugs in fact

the last antibiotic to come to market

was almost 30 years ago it's simply too

expensive and too slow for the major

pharmaceutical companies to make the

investment that that may be about to

change from San Francisco

Jake Ward takes a look at some of the

research being done to develop new drugs

in the United States I'm gonna grab your

temperature the United States has a bug

problem multi drug-resistant bacteria

superbugs that have learned to shrug off

the antibiotics we normally use to kill

them

plague the health system here according

to the Centers for Disease Control these

bugs infect two million people a year in

the United States twenty-three thousand

of them die in our society people move

between the skilled nursing facilities

and their outpatient care doctors and

the acute care and around and around and

so these organisms can get spread these

organisms can live on the skin and they

can live on the surfaces of a desk or a

bed or a stethoscope the frontline

solution is cleanliness constantly

washing hands and Hospital facilities

but also isolating infected patients at

one of Chicago's largest hospitals dr.

William trick is trying to automate a

process of identifying the bacteria

patients carry and quickly communicating

that information to the entire

healthcare system we can then tell the

hospital this is a patient known to have

this highly resistant bacteria and they

can immediately and appropriately put

them on the right precautions to prevent

spread to other patient

the trouble is that it takes days to

identify specifics about the resistant

bacteria dr. Lee Riley has just received

a multi-million dollar grant to develop

a process that would identify the right

drugs to fight bacteria in minutes if

you can determine what the drug

susceptibility that organisms before the

patient leaves your office then you can

give the right drug and then you don't

have to worry about creating drug

resistance but dr. Riley says that in

many cases maybe even in most cases we

are not infected in the hospital instead

the bacteria enters our bloodstream

during our day to day lives we think

that these infections are probably

acquired through contaminated food

products being exposed to a variety of

food products that may be contaminated

with bacteria agents that the carry drug

resistance genes here in the US and

around the world companies simply are

not making new antibiotics it's just too

expensive and too hard in part that's

because they've pretty much tapped out

the microorganisms that can be easily

cultivated in a lab setting the truth is

that there are enough microorganisms in

this handful of dirt to pursue countless

lines of new possible antibiotics but

it's only out here in nature that those

microorganisms will thrive as a result

researchers are limited to the tiny

number of microorganisms that grow in a

petri dish microbiologist Slava Epstein

realized this was a major problem for

researchers that gap is humongous

which means a very large amount of

microbial diversity on the planet is

just not accessible so this is the

entire diversity on the planet these dot

the red one is how much of that we have

cultivated Epstein's team developed a

device the AI chip that can isolate

cells in dirt to let them grow the way

they do in nature it lets nature

provides the necessary component for

growth and then the cell growth in form

a colony and once it forms a colony we

can explore this colony on its ability

to producing UNG bear

the hope is that a new crop of

antibiotics used on bacteria that have

been quickly and specifically identified

could slow deadly infections around the

world infections that our food and our

hospitals seem to have helped create in

my report prepared for the UK government

suggested the creation of the fund that

could payout up to three billion dollars

to large pharmaceutical companies that

develop new antibiotics economists Jim

O'Neill was the author of that report

takes the downside risks away for the

pharmaceutical industry to undertake

these kind of risks which from a world

I've lived in of risk versus reward

I would have thought that seemed like a

pretty important attraction we're

pursuing lots of other important paths

and in particular wonder in my growing

judgement is perhaps the most important

which is the demand side of the problem

and we all stop wanting to use

antibiotics as though they're Suites and

put pressure on our food companies to

stop using them for feeding animals so

better Diagnostics less if not no use of

antibiotics for fattening up animals and

probably a major education campaign

specific to different parts of the world

to just let people know that just taking

antibiotics isn't necessarily a good

thing to do well I want to come back now

to dr. Sally Davies England's chief

medical officer do you think a three

billion dollar incentive is enough to

get the interest of pharmaceutical

companies well I don't know whether that

is absolutely the answer Jim O'Neill

who's been asked to do this work as an

independent economist is going round

with his views discussing with

governments to try and get a global view

because if that's the right answer and

it may well be then we've got to get a

lot of governments subscribing to it but

what I do know is the present systems

broke no new antibiotics marketed that

would discovered

after 1987 we have passed the golden age

and it's a very difficult area it's

difficult science and the world has

disinvested in the scientists who do

that sort of work

so either Jim O'Neal's solution or

another I don't mind as long as we get

the solution move forward to start

developing and then delivering new drugs

that's all we have time for in this

special program there's plenty more on

superbugs and what's being done to

address the global threat on our website

at aljazeera.com thanks for watching

goodbye