Superbugs a looming global threat, but McMaster can help

A new report out of Britain suggests that drug resistance “is a more certain and immediate threat to the planet than climate change.”

Gerry Wright, director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, talked about the report and McMaster’s work in fighting superbugs this morning on CTV’s Canada AM.

“If we don’t stop the trend toward increasing antibiotic resistance, we’re going to be in a very sad situation not too long into the future,” Wright said.

Wright also discussed the economics of developing new antibiotics as well as the spread of superbugs around the world.

“We are a plane ride away from everyone else’s public health problem,” he told host Jeff Hutcheson.

“We have to invest in the development of new drugs. But it’s not all gloom and doom – there are great scientists working at McMaster and around Canada and the world. There are opportunities to solve this problem…with the appropriate resources to do so.”