Superbugs Unplugged

In this episode, co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price interviews longtime friend, colleague, and microbiologist, Jay Graham, who is an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Graham is an expert in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and has been working to improve WASH in underdeveloped communities for more than 20 years. Today, you'll learn about Dr. Graham's recent research on antibiotic use in animals and the importance of WASH in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant diseases.

On this episode, co-hosts Lance B. Price from the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and Matt Wellington from US PIRG dig into an annual report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that summarizes sales of antibiotics used in U.S. food animal production. The co-hosts explain both the significance and limitations of the report, which showed a nearly 10% increase in antibiotics sold for food animals from 2017 to 2018. Listeners will learn which animals species are "hogging" most of the antibiotics and how the U.S. compares with some European countries. 

On this episode, we are taking a closer look at the extremely real, human threat of antibiotic resistant infections, and discussing how momentum for beating these harmful bugs can start from just one person with a determination to find a solution. Co-host Matthew Wellington from U.S. PIRG interviewed Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, co-author of the book The Perfect Predator - A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug. Dr. Strathdee is the Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences, Harold Simon Professor at the University of California San Diego School (UCSD) of Medicine and Co-Director at the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics. In this episode, she tells the story of how her husband, Tom Patterson, was infected with a bacteria that was resistant to all available antibiotics and how doctors and researchers from around the world saved his life with a hundred year old forgotten cure—phage therapy—that shows promise as a weapon to tackle the global superbug crisis. Her husband co-authored the book with her and is also a renowned scientist at UCSD. To wrap up, Matt will dive into the news and updates currently chiming across the world of antibiotic resistance. 

This week, Dr. Lance Price and Matthew Wellington welcome listeners to the inaugural episode of their podcast and explain a bit about themselves, their respective organizations, and the rationale that sparked the creation of Superbugs Unplugged. You’ll learn about the growing dangers of drug-resistant infections and how the overuse of antibiotics in human medicine, food animal production and plant agriculture is causing these critical drugs to lose their effectiveness, putting us all at risk . You’ll also hear about topics that we’ll explore in future episodes and guests we hope to feature!