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To return to main Article Index Click Here>> ANTIBIOTICS The growing problem of antibiotic resistance is a global phenomenon causing genuine alarm amongst the most influential health bodies in the world, including the World Health Organization. Broad spectrum antibiotics, the type most commonly used in clinical practice, are indiscriminate killers. Not only do they kill the offending pathogen, but they also kill most of the beneificial bacteria residing in the gut of the patient. The 1930’s saw the most significant stride forward in the history of western medicine, with the development of a whole new class of drugs known as antibiotics. Before then, the greatest threat to the safety of the human population came from the invisible but ever present world of bacteria. Illnesses such as pneumonia, TB and typhoid fever regularly culled populations. From the 1930’s to the 1970’s mankind enjoyed an era of confidence, even arrogance, based on the belief that infectious disease could realistically become a thing of the past. Now we have come full circle, with many of our most informed scientists and biochemists believing that we potentially face returning to the preantibiotic era of bacterial dominance.
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