Pathogens are constantly developing and evolving immunities to antibiotics, especially in the hospitals. Can we halt the course of evolution?

A friend of mine, who also happens to be a medical doctor, got injured in an accident a few weeks ago and was hospitalized with an open fracture in his knee. Unfortunately, the wound got infected, and perhaps unsurprisingly – with germs who were resistant to the more common antibiotics in use. If you’re fearful for my friend’s health, you can relax now. The doctors used a more efficient antibiotic and saved his leg. However, this incident does bring to light one of the bigger problems of medicine nowadays. In one word: evolution.

Creationists may howl and moan, but evolution is an existing fact of life, and it’s happening everywhere. Germs, viruses, fungi and other pathogens and parasites are daily adapting to the chemical and biological weapons we’re bringing to use against them, and the only thing we can do is attempt to keep pace in this crazy arms race by inventing new and better antibiotics.

Personally, I find this appallingly silly. That’s not to say that I’m opposed to developing new antibiotics, because I have no qualms with the need for those. However, I believe that with enough proper thought and planning ahead, hospitals and bio-med companies can vastly reduce the chance for pathogens to develop immunity to current antibiotics in use and passing it on to their fellows. Step one for hospitals would probably be to focus on better ventilation systems and preventing patients who receive antibiotics from interacting with one another. Well, maybe that’s a little too harsh, but that’s similar to what farmers with genetically engineered crops do to prevent evolution of insects who enjoy immunity to the toxins secreted by the modified plants. Basically, they’re planting fields of GE plants adjacent to fields of non-GE plants. That way, the few insects that develop immunity to the toxins in the GE field, mate with the normal insects from the non-GE field, and the immunity is usually diluted and lost in their descendents.

I admit as to not having much experience with hospitals, but maybe something similar could be attempted? This might also be an interesting approach for any young and uprising bio-med company that wants to distinguish its product from all the others in the market: “Look at us! Our product is SO cool, AND it reduces the chance of being rendered obsolete by evolution!”

Obviously, stopping evolution altogether is close to impossible. Holding it back, however, might be within our reach. If you want to learn more on the subject, I warmly recommend a recent review on ‘Evolution and Public Health’ by Gilbet S. Omenn, which is available to all readers free of charge.

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