GENETICS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Planet of the Bugs: The Never-Ending Tale

Program Summary

Download a PDF version of the transcript.

Producer: Larry Massett
Tuberculosis Treatment Program Feature Producer: Jon Kalish
Hospital Superbugs Feature Producer: Leda Hartmann
On the Air Beginning: November 2001

When scientists announced they had sequenced the human genome, much was made of our new potential to conquer the infectious diseases that have plagued us for centuries.

In this program, we hear from leading researchers in the field of microbiology who are using their knowledge of DNA to disarm and possibly defeat the bugs that harm and kill us.

Our host, John Hockenberry is sick and is looking for ways to banish all germs from his house. He dreams about meeting a spokesperson for the microbes who explains the interdependence between humans and germs.

Not completely convinced, John goes on a quest to find out how genetics might help us understand the relationship between microbes or bugs and humans. He also seeks to learn how we humans are using new genomic sciences to learn about the causes of various infectious diseases, how they make us sick, and how we can contain them.

To do this, he consults with experts in cholera and other food borne diseases, tuberculosis and influenza.

He visits Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation, who has found Vibrio cholerae, the bug that causes the deadly disease, cholera, in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. She studies how microbes adapt to be more virulent, or less so, depending on the environment they're in.

The University of Georgia Center for Food Safety's Mike Doyle then tells John about his work using chickens that carry Campylobacter, a harmful food-borne pathogen. Out of the thousands of birds he has examined, he's found just a few that do not carry the disease. It turns out they carry protective bacteria that keep the Campylobacter at bay. He hopes to culture these "probiotic" bacteria and use them in chicken feed to inoculate other birds.

Following John's adventures, producer Jon Kalish takes us on a tour of New Jersey's tuberculosis treatment program, called "directly observed therapy," or DOT. We meet a DOT caseworker who risks her own health to treat those at the bottom of the economic ladder. We also meet Dawn Motyka, a general practitioner from California, who tells about the pressure she gets from patients to prescribe antibiotics for viral illnesses like the flu - which cannot be remedied with such drugs.

Epidemiologist Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes how DNA tracking techniques are used to identify the flu strain hitting our country in a given year. This helps the agency design vaccines and gauge how deadly the virus is before it hits.

Finally, John Hockenberry takes us on a trip to Ellis Island, where European immigrants from the "great wave" (1892-1924) were quarantined if they showed any signs of illness.

Will we, or should we, ever get the advantage over pathogens? Or will the game of move-countermove just continue forever? Perhaps it isn't a matter of winning, but of minimizing damage.

Special Feature: Hospital Superbugs

This feature explores how an already deadly bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, has become ever more virulent and resistant to antibiotics. Worse yet, it's found in a place that seemingly ought to be the safest: hospitals. How does this bacteria exchange genetic information about antibiotic resistance? How might we stop it?

Topic In-Depth: Why it's so tough to beat the flu

Last Updated: July 2004