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Deploy vaccines to fight superbugs

Immunizations combined with antibiotics could be our best shot at combating drug-resistant microbes, argue Rino Rappuoli, David E. Bloom and Steve Black.
  1. Rino Rappuoli

    1. Rino Rappuoli is chief scientist at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, Siena, Italy; and professor of vaccines research at Imperial College London, UK.

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  2. David E. Bloom

    1. David E. Bloom is professor of economics and demography at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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  3. Steve Black

    1. Steve Black is professor of paediatrics at the Division of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

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Bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi that are resistant to drugs cause 700,000 deaths each year. By 2050, such ‘superbugs’, inured to treatments, could cause up to 10 million deaths annually and cost the global economy US$100 trillion1–2. If this happens, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be a bigger killer than cancer is now.

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Nature 552, 165-167 (2017)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08323-0

References

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  2. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: Final Report and Recommendations (Wellcome Trust and UK Government, 2016).

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Competing Interests

R.R. is a full-time employee and shareholder at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines.

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