Mapping 3,000 dangerous bacteria genes

With the genome mapping of more than 3,000 bacteria, scientists hope to find new ways to combat drug-resistant bacteria.

Reuters on June 6 reported that researchers are working hard to better understand some of the world's most dangerous diseases and find ways to fight them.

To do so, they decoded the DNA of many strains of bacteria, including cholera, dysentery and other deadly diseases.

Bacteria in dishwashing sponge at a pantry - (Photo: AA Mediacorp).

Among them was a sample of bacteria from Mr. Fleming - the scientist who discovered the first antibiotic penicillin in 1928, and the Shigella flexneri dysentery bacterium was taken from a soldier in World War I.

"Understanding and comparing these types of bacteria with current groups allows us to know how they will respond to current treatments," co-author Julian Parkhill of the genomic map study. Wellcom Sanger Institute, UK said.

"This will help us develop new antibiotics and vaccines," Parkhill concluded.

Experts estimate that about 70% of bacteria are resistant to at least one drug used to treat them, and these are becoming one of the biggest threats to today's medicine.

Of the most serious diseases, tuberculosis is most serious when it affects more than 10.4 million people a year and kills about 1.7 million people in 2016.

Another disease is gonorrhea, radicals and has infected 78 million people every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is gradually becoming untreatable.

The research team will publish a free genetic map of 3,000 strains of bacteria online to help researchers around the world develop new methods of testing, treatment and vaccines.