TUBERCULOSIS has plagued humanity for thousands of years. The discovery in the 19th century of its cause, a bacterium (pictured above) called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the consequent development of better hygiene, helped bring that plague under control. Then, in the mid-20th century, what many hoped would be the final nail in its coffin appeared: antibiotic drugs.
Unfortunately, TB is back. After a few decades in which antibiotics did indeed seem to be working miracles, some strains of M. tuberculosis have evolved resistance to them. In 2015 5% of the world’s 10m cases failed to respond to treatment with isoniazid and rifampicin, the drugs of first resort. Half of those non-responders were infected by strains of the bacterium immune to second-line treatments as well. Most microbiologists regard these numbers as portents of worse to come. That is driving a search for new antibiotics against which M. tuberculosis...Continue reading
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