• Question: What is the most dangerous bacteria we know of

    Asked by R4DZER to Katie on 13 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by Rian.a19.
    • Photo: Katie Fala

      Katie Fala answered on 13 Nov 2019:

      This depends very much on who you talk to!

      In terms of numbers of deaths per year worldwide, it would probably be Mycobacterium tuberculosis (this is the bacteria that causes TB) or Plasmodium species (they cause malaria, technically not a bacteria, but a protozoan).

      In my opinion the most dangerous bacteria are those that are resistant to all our antibiotics. This is already happening today – in Ireland there are an estimated 5,000 infections and 219 deaths each year due to antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’. Some scientists have estimated that there could be 10 million deaths per year worldwide due to microbes that are resistant to antimicrobials by 2050 (if climate change doesn’t get us first of course…)

      Thanks for your question 🙂

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