Re:Rising Threat of Infections Unfazed by Antibiotics
by camccann on Sunday February 28, 2010 @12:41PM
(#1157191)
I've heard it proposed that we could try and work with this instead of against it, by "domesticating" diseases. Take some harmful bacteria, breed a strain that's mostly benign and moderately contagious, then let it loose to displace the more harmful strains while carefully avoiding doing too much to kill it. In other words, create selection pressures that favor mild strains.
Vaccines suit this description. But natural selection will favor bacteria that beat your immunity, however your immunity is enhanced. The bacteria for which we have effective defenses, of whatever kind, we forget about, but the few kinds of bacteria that can harm human beings continue to be surprising. That's the arms race of natural selection.