Most promising, in the long run, are vaccines, which prepare our immune systems to deactivate bugs without the help of antibiotics. Vaccines have worked wonders in the recent past. In the 1970s and early 1980s, drug-resistant Haemophilus influenza type B bacteria killed or disabled thousands of children every year. Over-prescription of antibiotics has created nasty new strains of pneumococcus, but it's hoped that a childhood pneumococcus vaccine, which has performed well in large trials, could work as well as the Hib shots have. An experimental vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus showed promise in mice, according to research published in Science last month.
Pessimism is the default setting in the field.
More like the gradual erosion of our ability to control human diseases. The question is how fast it closes. All rights reserved.