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What A Modified Antibiotic Means For The Fight Against Superbugs

NPR
Published May 30, 2017 at 12:20 PM EDT
A microbiologist works with tubes of bacteria samples in an antimicrobial resistance and characterization lab within the Infectious Disease Laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in 2013. (David Goldman/AP)
A microbiologist works with tubes of bacteria samples in an antimicrobial resistance and characterization lab within the Infectious Disease Laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in 2013. (David Goldman/AP)

The antibiotic vancomycin has been modified to make it harder for bacteria to develop resistance to it. The World Health Organization has warned that antibiotic-resistant superbugs pose a major threat to global health.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks with Jean Patel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about what the new modification means in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.