bacteria - The African Mirror

Nov

2023

By MARINA JOUBERT, PHAIK YEONG CHEAH and SONIA LEWYCKA

Antimicrobial resistance is a silent killer that leads to 5 million deaths a year. Solutions must include the poor

MICROBES such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi form part of our everyday lives – they live in us, on us and around us. We need them for healthy digestion, immune function, and the synthesis of essential nutrients, and we depend on them for farming and industrial processes. But microbes also cause disease in people, animals and plants. That is why science has developed an arsenal of antimicrobials that kill them or slow their spread. Over time, microbes develop resistance to antimicrobials, and some eventually evolve into so-called “superbugs” that no longer respond to the drugs. So we see more…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

In the midst of a pandemic, Nigeria battles to end a painful blinding disease

HEALTH

ADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI and NITA BHALLA FOR eight years Nigerian housewife Mallama Baraka suffered in silence as the eye disease trachoma, which can blind but is entirely preventable, slowly took its toll. It started with a watery discharge and a burning, itchy sensation in her eyes. Her eyelids swelled and her eyelashes turned inside them, causing her extreme pain each time she blinked. Over time, she began to see less clearly. "It became hard for me to do my daily chores ... but the clinic is far and it would take time and money to go there. I thought whatever…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

River of bacteria: a South African study pinpoints what’s polluting the water

ENVIRONMENT

IN 2010, the United Nations recognised access to clean water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. However, over 4.1 billion people around the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, still do not have access to this human right. AKEBE LUTHER KING ABIA, Research Scientist, University of KwaZulu-Natal Clean and safe water is necessary for basic life functions — for drinking, for cooking, for bathing, and more. When it is not available, people resort to alternative sources, which are often polluted with pathogenic bacteria arising from human waste. Using such water exposes people to waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea.…