Daleks to Exterminate Superbugs
How To Rid Ourselves of Superbugs
“What is this monster I have created?” asked Frankenstein in that classic novel.
A lesson from a fictional history we should have learned. In finding a way to cure nasty infections by killing off bacteria we have simply accelerated their evolution.
How Superbugs Evolve
By ‘curing’ a bacterial infection using antibiotics, some of the little bugs survive and these survivors become immune to the type of antibiotic used. They are ‘resistant’ to it.
Breading rapidly as they do, they become a new strain and just when they think they’ve found their Nirvana… along comes a new antibiotic and the little blighters have to start over.
Eventually they become resistant to every type of known antibiotic and are in effect “Superbugs”.
We humans have created these superbugs and we failed to make the link albeit based on fictional characters and stories. As with science fiction leading to science fact over time it seems the invention of the computer, space flight and other technological advances are not the only science facts brought out of fiction.
Fictional Warnings
If you have half an hour, check out some classics on how we have managed to deal so far with agressive bugs in the fictional world..
- The Andromeda Strain
- Dracula (Vampirism is described as an infection)
- War of the Worlds (SPOILER ALERT It was ‘microbes’ that killed off the Martians)
There are many more however being fictional the humans always won in the end.
The cold hard truth here is that we are at the low point where in a classic Hollywood film we would be presented with a potential hero who has personal issues, a dysfunctional family, a non-believing boss and f course the ability to save the world.
As we are in the realms of fantasy then it seems appropriate that another fictional bringer of destruction is in fact our key to survival…
Enter my heroes THE DALEKS.
Check this link to the BBC News site and enjoy…
https://gizmodo.com/a-doctor-who-dalek-is-helping-exterminate-antibiotic-re-1781534089
Exterminate indeed.
