Scientists seeking new ways to fight drug-resistant superbugs have mapped the genomes of more than 3,000 bacteria, including samples of a bug taken from Alexander Fleming's nose and a dysentery-causing strain from a World War One soldier. The first bacteria to be deposited in the NCTC was a strain of dysentery-causing Shigella flexneri that was isolated in 1915 from a soldier in the trenches of World War One. Specialists estimate that around 70 per cent of bacteria are already resistant to at least one antibiotic that is commonly used to treat them. This has made the evolution of "superbugs" that can evade one or multiple drugs one of the biggest threats facing medicine today. "This in turn helps us develop new antibiotics and vaccines.

Source: CBC News June 06, 2018 14:48 UTC