• Question: how is the search for a cure going?

    Asked by 326epdj29 to Rosie, Liz, Beccy on 12 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 12 Jun 2017:

      There are cures for some infectious diseases – for example antibiotics like penicillin – but not for others. I doubt there will ever be a single cure for the wide range of infections.
      There are infectious worms (hookworm), proteins (which caused mad cow disease), bacteria (which cause tuberculosis), and viruses (which cause influenza and HIV/AIDS). There are even infectious fungi.

    • Photo: Rosie Fok

      Rosie Fok answered on 12 Jun 2017:

      It is a cliche, but it is true that prevention is better than cure when it comes to disease, including infectious disease. So, the important work that scientists do in developing new vaccines is what will protect us from infection, especially as antibiotic resistance spreads more widely and bacterial infections become more difficult to treat.

    • Photo: Liz Buckingham-Jeffery

      Liz Buckingham-Jeffery answered on 13 Jun 2017:

      As well as what Christl and Rosie have said, I think there will always be new diseases and infections that develop so we probably won’t ever be able to cure everything.

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