Editorials in 2018

Despite major advances in dissecting how pathogens cause disease and the development of treatments to combat infection, infectious diseases remain a major cause of death today. This month’s issue includes a special ‘Focus on Infectious Disease’, which highlights efforts to develop new ways to prevent, detect and treat infections.

Academic titles are often used without much thought; however, a recent discussion on social media has highlighted how the use of a title can have important implications for individuals, in particular women, and how they can be perceived as elitist by the general public.

Access to toilets and basic sanitation systems revolutionized living environments and reduced the burden from diarrhoeal diseases in the developed world. With more than half of the global population still living without access to a household toilet, the need to tackle this feculent problem requires greater prominence.

Without greater attention being paid to the work–life balance of academic researchers, effects on creativity, productivity, interpersonal relationships and mental health will continue to grow, increasing the risk of burnout.

The second outbreak of Ebola virus disease in recent months in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will test local and international responses. Fortunately, the experience gained since the West African outbreak of 2013–2016 means that we are better prepared to meet the challenge than ever before.

The release of the World Health Organization’s Essential Diagnostics List highlights that diagnostics need to be a fundamental part of any effective public health system and the development of rapid, reliable and reasonably priced tests will be critical for tailoring appropriate treatments against infectious diseases.

Obituaries paying tribute only to luminaries of microbiology risk overlooking the contributions of a diverse community of researchers in our field. A new channel on the Microbiology Community provides a space for anyone to write about the researchers that have influenced their work or career.

Although the spotlight on CRISPR–Cas systems has shone on their immense potential as genome-editing tools, the field’s origins are rooted in the microbiology of phage–bacterium interactions. Furthering our understanding of these processes can uncover more systems and generate new reagents with revolutionary properties.

Travelling to a conference can be financially and environmentally costly, researchers should take careful decisions on which meetings to attend and put in place a strategy to extract as much benefit from the event as possible.

The first demonstration that RNA virus populations are groups of closely related sequences, proposed to behave as a quasispecies, was published 40 years ago this month, marking the beginning of a fundamental change in how we understand RNA virus dynamics, pathogenesis and response to therapy.

Fittingly for a bacterium whose slow growth rate has frustrated researchers for decades, progress towards ending the TB epidemic has built only at a snail’s pace. 2018 should see a much needed stimulus, with increased political awareness of the scale of the problems faced, and the adoption of a coordinated global response.

By sparking imagination and interest during childhood, and by finding and supporting champions to nurture microbial fascination through to adulthood, the fundamental importance of microorganisms can attain a justified and necessary place in the public psyche, but more on-screen time will be needed.