This two-part series will investigate multi-drug resistance (MDR as its known) in cancers, viruses and other microbes that pose a threat to our health. Dr Mark Porter looks at the latest ways to overcome this issue.
Bacteria
Programme 1
The discovery of antibiotics was arguably the greatest medical advance of the 20th Century. But even in the earliest days of their use, there were already signs that bacteria were responding to the new threat. It was the start of an arms race and it’s a race that the microbes are winning.
Barely a week goes by when antibiotic resistant “superbugs” – like MRSA - don’t feature somewhere in the news. Bacteria are not the only enemies that are proving increasingly resistant to drugs – viruses, parasites, and even cancers are now developing effective defence mechanisms against the best that modern medicine can throw at them.
In Rise of Resistance Dr Mark Porter discovers what drug resistant MRSA, TB, cancer and HIV have in common and asks whether we are really losing the battle.
In part two of the Rise of Resistance, Dr Mark Porter looks at some of the novel ways to deactivate microbes including the renaisssance of an Eastern European treatment that sets a germ to catch a germ.
Unfortunately, cancer cells are able to mutate so quickly that they become resistant to even the latest designer drugs. Mark meets the doctors who are able to predict how cancer cells will react and this is leading to a further generation of drugs.
