How to fight harmful microbial bugs and superbugs?

Collection Editors

Michel Goldman, Alain Fischer, Paul-Henri Lambert

Views

642,937 views

Participating Sections

Submission Deadline

Closed

Articles

About this collection

Text

We are delighted to say that this amazing Collection is also available in French. You can download the French eBook here. We would like to thank those at the I3H Institute for their efforts in translating these articles.

The evolution of human beings has been shaped to a large extent by microbes. A number of microbes are innocuous or even contribute to our health equilibrium. This is the case of bacteria and viral phages present in our gut. However, several bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi are damaging our bodies, causing a number of acute and chronic diseases. Until recently, these bugs represented the main causes of death. Better hygiene, vaccines, antibiotics and other anti-microbial drugs have resulted in a better control or cure of many infections. However, malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS still represent major threats in several countries and the recent epidemics of Ebola and Zika demonstrate how vulnerable we are to newly emerging viruses. Furthermore, diarrhea and pneumonia caused by bacteria or viruses still kill millions of children worldwide. Most importantly, bacteria resistant to existing antibiotics are multiplying at a high pace and these superbugs are expected to kill more and more people in the coming years.

Clearly, we need to develop more effective approaches to tackle bugs and superbugs. Better hygiene and better vaccine coverage must be considered first and education of kids is essential in this respect. This is the main objective of this series of papers to be published in Frontiers for Young Minds under the heading «How to fight bugs and superbugs? ». Another key objective of the collection is to elicit the interest of children for research on innovative anti-microbial therapies and vaccines.

Would you like to submit to this collection?

For researchers interested in submitting to this Collection, please consult our author guidelines and check that you have all the essentials included before submitting