Question: do you think you will end up finding a cure for salmonella

Mark Kirkwood answered on 13 Jun 2018:

Hi Sheekybear!

Thanks for the question, it’s a real thinker.

I don’t think we’ll find a way to “cure” Salmonella (or rather, Salmonellosis, the disease caused by Salmonella) any time soon, because the main way you get it is by not handling or cooking food properly. This will happen no matter how much we tell people to be careful!
Also in developing countries, that don’t have great sanitation or hygiene standards, this will always be an issue.

What we CAN do, is keep finding out how all the different Salmonellae behave in different hosts (like, people, cows, pigs etc.) and use that to change how we prepare our food and look after our animals, to try and REDUCE how much gets into our food.

Bacteria are super clever, and can adapt much faster than we can to new problems, making them very hard to get rid of completely!

Oh, we can also create vaccines for the really dangerous versions, like Salmonella Typhi, which causes Typhoid fever. You probably had a Typhoid injection when you were younger, and that’s what that protects you against, the version of Salmonella that makes you REALLY sick, not just gives you an upset stomach.

Cheers