We’re running out of drugs to combat increasingly deadly bacteria.
The drugs we have are losing their effectiveness, meaning infections that were previously easily controllable, could in some cases become now become deadly.
The decreasing effectiveness of previous mainstay antibiotics is a result of sly mutations of bacteria, much of it due to human misuse of the drugs.
We’re now in a battle against the bacteria, almost like we were just a couple of generations ago.
On the front line of that battle are scientific researchers, the Anti-biotic hunters.
Anti-biotics aren’t “made”, they already exist in nature in the form of other bacteria that attack the known disease causing bacteria.
Just like the original and well-known antibiotics, they’re found in nature first and then synthesised in labs later..
Bruce Mohun is the writer and director of the Vancouver-based Dreamfilm production “The Anti-Biotic Hunters”, a new documentary that follows the challenging efforts of these researchers as they travel to remote spots around the world; in the jungles, in caves, and in the ocean, armed with tiny sample containers searching for new undiscovered bacteria that can be used in the battle against disease,
In Canada, the documentary can be seen Thursday, March 5 at 8 pm on CBC The Nature of Things. A DVD copy can be purchased from Dreamfilm or from the Nature of Things
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