Infection-Killing Bugs and Antibiotics

Children who like to look under rocks for bugs (See the earlier blog post, "The Bees and the Birds.") have company in the scientific community that is searching for microbes to cure drug-resistant infections from bacteria and fungi in patients all over the world.

     According to an article by David Wahlberg in the Wisconsin State Journal (April 14, 2014), soil-based microbes produced miracle antibiotics after World War II. In Alexander McCall Smith's book, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon, for example, a character in Botswana, Africa, attributes cures to the kgaba plant. But recent soil-based research keeps rediscovering the same antibiotics.

     Consequently, kids can get in on the search for ants, beetles, bees, wasps, termites, sponges, and sea squirts that have found new microbes in bacteria that could act as antibiotics in humans.

     At the moment, the U.S. National Institutes of Health is funding a $16 million, five-year study to discover bugs, marine life, and other species that could help produce the drugs needed to treat staph and other infections. (An earlier blog post, "Medical Profession Suffers from International Conflict," tells how blue light phototherapy is being used to treat staph infections.) In January, 2015, the teixobactin antibiotic which has been shown to foil infection resistance passed animal tests without side effects.

     Young people interested in helping collect specimens or in doing a project involving the development of antibiotics from new microbes might get in touch with:
     Dr. David Andes, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin
     Cameron Currie, a bacteriology professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, who is doing research in Florida, Wisconsin, and possibly in Hawaii
     Tim Bugin, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, who is doing research in Puerto Rica and the Florida Keys.

     Also see the later posts, "Global Search for New Antibiotics" and "Bacteria Talk to Each Other."



   

Respect the Faith

In this holy season, while Jewish people are celebrating Passover and Christians are about to recall the Resurrection of Christ on Easter, it might be a good opportunity for children to think about the need to respect the holy days of all religions. Freedom to exercise an individual's religion was considered a right important enough to be written explicitly in and guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Students may know Muslim classmates who are free to attend religious services on Friday, Jewish children who go to their temples on Saturday, or Christian children who attend church on Sunday. They can ask friends about holy days they may not celebrate, such as the beginning of the Muslim holy season, Ramadan, on June 28, 2014, or the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, on October 4, 2014.

     Learning about foreign countries is not complete without learning that followers of different religions are concentrated in certain parts of the world. Africa has both Christians and Muslims; Asia has Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus; most Christians are in Europe, Latin America, and North America; the Jewish population is concentrated in Israel and the United States. It is all too easy for those in the majority who practice one religion in a country to oppress the minority. In Syria, the Christian minority suffers at the hands of the Sunni Muslim majority, and in Egypt Islamist mobs have destroyed Christian churches, orphanages, and businesses, according to TIME magazine (April 21, 2014). While a quarter of the Middle East's population was Christian in 1914; fewer than 5% are now Christian, since Christians left to escape harassment and physical violence. Given the usual inclination of a majority to dominate a minority, it is commendable to see that Pakistan and Sri Lanka recognize their countries' minorities on their flags (See the earlier blog post, "A Salute to Flags.").

More details about major religions can be found in the earlier blog post, "This We Believe."