Infection in the twenty-first century: predictions and postulates

Abstract

The late Paul Garrod, in whose honour this lecture is named, was 'the right man at the right time'. He seized the opportunities offered by the dawning of the chemotherapeutic era with vigour and enthusiasm and was a formidable link between the traditional laboratory-based bacteriologist and the more clinically orientated 'modern' medical microbiologist. Professor Garrod was a founder member of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and I had the privilege of meeting him on many occasions. He would have relished the many challenges facing today's microbiologists, infectious disease physicians and public health experts. These will have major implications for antimicrobial chemotherapy in the twenty-first century. The emergence and prevalence of infectious diseases, and the necessity for discovering therapies to treat them, are influenced by many factors. In this lecture I will discuss four which could have a major influence on infectious diseases in the twenty-first century-global warming, biological warfare/terrorism, the dissemination of infections, including those caused by resistant pathogens, by travellers and certain untreatable zoonotic diseases.