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Business Daily: Drug Resistant Diseases

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21/10/2016 GMT

Drug Resistant Diseases

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Drug Resistant Diseases

Is the growing resistance of infections to medicines the biggest threat facing humanity?

Is the growing resistance of many infections to antibiotics and other medicines the biggest threat facing humanity? Ed Butler speaks to businesses hoping to offer solutions.

Is the growing resistance of many fatal infections to antibiotics and other medicines the biggest threat facing humanity?

Presenter Ed Butler speaks to economist Jim O'Neill, who led a review into anti-microbial resistance over the past two years that culminated in a UN resolution last month to tackle the problem. He claims 10 million people a year could be dying from resistant diseases by mid-century.

Ed also hears from businessmen hoping to offer some solutions. Don Straus explains how his firm First Light Biosciences is pioneering a way of better diagnosing infections in order to avoid overprescribing antibiotics. Meanwhile Shawn Iadonato of another biotech firm, Kineta, aims to guide the body's own immune system to attack these emerging killer strains.

(Picture: A baby receives treatment for malaria in Indonesia, where the disease is becoming resistant to anti-malaria medicines; Credit: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

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