British scientists have developed an antibiotic from human breast milk that can wipe out drug-resistant bacteria.
The breakthrough opens a new front in the fight against superbugs, a threat that David Cameron has warned could plunge modern medicine “back into the Dark Ages”.
A panel set up by the prime minister to tackle antibiotic-resistant bugs forecast that they would cost the world ten million lives and £700 billion a year by 2050 if the problem went unchecked.
At present the infections kill about 700,000 people each year, including at least 10,000 in Britain. Unlike most conventional antibiotics, the new drug attacks the basic biology of bacteria in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to evolve defences.
It emerged last night that ministers