Delhi belly. Montezuma’s Revenge. The Aztec two-step. Here in the West, we like to slap whimsical names on traveler’s diarrhea. For those of us blessed with ready access to food and sanitary infrastructure, these diseases are a minor inconvenience.
Those in the developing world are not so lucky: diarrhea kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, most often infants and newborns. Traveler’s diarrhea is also a major concern for antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotic-resistant strains are on the rise, and over-use of antibiotics is thought to encourage the emergence and spread of new ones. Sadly, traditional drug development technologies have largely failed to provide a complete solution, despite decades of investment by big pharma,foundations, and, especially, the US military.
