Scientists have found antibiotic resistance genes in the bacterial flora of a South American tribe who has never been exposed to antibiotic drugs.
The findings suggest that bacteria in the human body have had the ability to resist antibiotics since long before such drugs were ever used to treat disease.
The research stems from the 2009 discovery of a tribe of Yanomami Amerindians in a remote mountainous area in southern Venezuela. Largely because the tribe had been isolated from other societies for more than 11,000 years, its members were found to have among the most diverse collections of bacteria recorded in humans.
It was alarming to find genes from the tribespeople that would deactivate these modern, synthetic drugs.
, Washington University School of Medicine
