Although all the focus rigth now is on coronavirus / Covid-19, the problem with antibiotic resistance has never been more important. Because virus infections is often the prime cause / initiators of bacterial infections.
It is close to a century ago that Penicillin was discovered (by serendipity) by Alexander Fleming – and it led to an revolution of medicine and health. It was followed by a golden era of discovery of various antibiotics and many fatal diseases could suddenly be treated. However, now we might be facing a ‘post-antibiotic era’ where infectious diseases will again be a major killer due to the development of antibiotic resistance in many bacteria. WHO claims that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antibiotic-resistance).
In a series of animations, I have described how penicillin was discovered (part 1), how it led to discovery of other antibiotics (part 1), how and why resistance occurs/works (part 2) and how it spreads (part 3).