The amphibiotic relationship of Helicobacter pylori and humans

Medical science, as with most organized human activities, is subject to fashion and fad. The major scientific advances in the first half of the twentieth century, encompassed by the development of microbiology and improvements in public health, led to a marked reduction in the morbidity and mortality due to infectious diseases. Following the discovery and widespread use of antibiotics, society had become complacent about the role of infectious diseases as threats to humankind. However, the plagues of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and the development of multiply-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, among others, have led to a sea-change in our attitudes about infectious diseases. Now we are at ‘war’ against microbes, and concerned about killer strains (‘flesh-eating bacteria’, for example), and distant epidemics. The threat of infectious diseases, once thought to be under control, clearly is not gone.