Bac’ to health: Beating the bugs that leave you breathless

On September 28, 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the world’s first antibiotic. Almost 100 years later, antibiotics save millions of lives around the world on daily basis, although in as little as 30 years' time, we could enter an era where bacterial infection once again becomes a significant threat due to antimicrobial resistance. What will this look like? What can be done to halt this? How can we all play a part in preserving this essential component of modern medicine?

If antibiotics were people, they would be a mix of boomers, GenX and millennials – the latest new class of antibiotic came onto the market in 1987. By contrast, antibiotic-resistant lung infections are rising each year. How are we doing on the search for new drugs? Could we find ways to boost the immune system instead?

Most chest infections can be treated at home. Some patients will need hospital. But a few will have life-threatening, severe lung failure. How does an infection cause this? What are the long-term effects? And why are there no drug treatments for severe lung failure? Science is critical, because the patient is too.

As we rapidly approach a daunting era of healthcare without antibiotics, we desperately need new therapies to preserve the lifesaving actions of these drugs. Research is now turning to a piece of technology we have employed for over a century. Vaccines! Our research is employing new strategies to make bacterial vaccines against the most prevalent respiratory infections, in the hope that we can turn to methods of prevention rather than treatment for these potentially life threating illness.