Introducing Prognosis Season 3: Superbugs

On this new season of Prognosis, we look at the spread of infections that are resistant to antimicrobial medicines. You're probably more likely to have heard of these as superbugs. Their rise has been described as a silent tsunami of catastrophic proportions. We travel to countries on the frontline of the crisis, and explore how hospitals and doctors around the world are fighting back. Prognosis’ new season launches Sept. 5. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
It can be one of the worst days of someone's
life to get a cancer diagnosis. For a long time,
patients at least new chemotherapy was one path to being treated.
In some countries, that path has become a lot riskier.
That's because of the emergence of bacteria with the most
extreme form of antibodic resistance. We are facing a difficult scenario.

(00:29):
Do give chemotherapy and cure the cancer and get ad
regorously infection and the patient dying of infections. You don't
know what to do. The world doesn't know what to
do in the scenario. But that's the if you're talking
about the past antibiotic Europe. You first see that in
cancer Patients. On Jason Gale, a senior editor with Bloomberg News,

(00:53):
on this new season of Prognosis, we look at the
spread of infections around the world that even our most
potent anti microbial medicines can't stop. It's being described as
a silent tsunami of catastrophic proportions, and it's happening faster
than scientists previously thought. The situation is getting worse, definitely

(01:15):
getting worse, because the drug or systems read the superbug
grade is increasing. One a daily basis. It's increasing, so
the number of measures dying are really high. That's dr Abdugafour,
one of India's fiercest anti superbug crusaders. This season we

(01:36):
look at how researchers in the United States and elsewhere
looking for ways to fight back against superbugs, whether it's
by turning to unlikely sources or trying radical experiments. We
just hoped that nothing would happen because we were worried
that he could die of septic shark because essentially we
were injecting a billion viruses into his body. We investigate

(02:00):
of the unusual stabs hospitals are taking the safeguard against
hard to treat infections. Here's the rector swab. It's pretty straightforward.
You can either take it yourself or otherwise one of
the nursing staff can take it. And we look at
how scientists in Denmark attracting the global spread of superbugs
from waste collected from airplane bathrooms. Couldn't this be a

(02:20):
way of actually doing a global monitoring So you could
be sitting here in Copenhagen and then just let all
the samples come to you. Prognosis new season launch of
September five. Subscribe today on Apple podcasts, pocketcasts, or wherever
you listen