Using specimens provided by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Ohio State University researchers tested mefloquine and its variants against 10 types of bacteria, including E. Coli, pneumococci, streptococci, and staphylococci. Wired News delivered to your inbox or hand-held device. E.Coli food poisoning strikes millions each year, and staphylococcal infections are responsible for about 13 percent of the 2 million infections that take place each year in the nation's hospitals, according to the Center for Disease Control. Bacterial infections cause about 30 percent of all deaths among the elderly population, according to the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment. Dr. David Bell, antimicrobial resistance coordinator with the CDC, said further aggressive research on new antibiotics is crucial because so many infections easily fight off antibiotics.
Drug resistance is a problem that's never going to go away.
Kunin, a retired internal medicine professor, said his research began in 1995 when he noticed an anti-malarial drug had a marginal effect on bacteria inside a test tube. He went on to test mefloquine, the primary malaria drug used by doctors, against a standard assortment of disease-causing bacteria. They killed these bacteria extremely rapidly. Send it . Use this version.