Superbugs deploy ‘decoy flares’ like fighter jets

LAHORE: Scientists have discovered an astonishing new strategy deployed by superbugs in their evolutionary struggle with antibiotics – decoy ‘flares’ which distract the drugs that would otherwise kill them.

About a third of MRSA bacteria, which kill thousands of people around the world, are largely immune to the current antibiotic of last resort. In a new academic paper in the journal Nature Microbiology, researchers said they had found out a reason why. When it comes under attack, the bug can release ‘decoys’ which the scientists compared to the flares used by warplanes to distract heat-seeking missiles.

The rise of antibiotic resistance is causing increasing alarm with the prospect of a return to the days when a minor cut in the garden could be fatal and major operations were impossible because of the risk of infection.