Research Finds Way to Neutralize Bacteria Resistant to Antibiotics Without Killing It

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To fight against bacteria resistant to antibiotics, researchers try to make them harmless and not to eliminate them.

Par Olivier Hertel

Lscientists call it Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A bacterium, or rather a terror. Omnipresent in hospitals, it is responsible for a significant proportion of nosocomial infections and can be fatal to immunocompromised people. It is especially feared in intensive care units, because it colonizes the systems used to ventilate patients. The royal way to infect the lungs. It also likes to settle on the wounds of major burns victims, where it spreads its greenish and malodorous colonies. And, as if that weren’t enough, some strains are now resistant to all available antibiotics. This resistance to antibiotics caused 559,000 deaths in 2019 worldwide.

“WHO classifies Pseudomonas in the top 3 critical pathogens…