Further information

Antibiotics have saved countless lives since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, but their indiscriminate use means "some diseases have become resistant to existing drugs". At a nursing home in Utrecht, The Netherlands, Futuris met a woman whose condition is typical of this troubling phenomenon. Joke Leeuew was holidaying in Greece with her husband Gerard when she had a stroke. Things took an even worse turn when, at a local hospital, she picked up an infection that made her treatment much more difficult. Researchers in Paris are developing a method to counter these apparently "invulnerable" bacteria. When a patient takes antibiotics they work efficiently until the residues reach the colon. There, they needlessly kill lots of "good" bacteria, clearing the way for resistant bugs to spread. So the antibiotic action must be stopped before it gets into the colon.