The Black Death wiped out close to a quarter of the world's population. Even our familiar foe 'the flu' was one of the deadliest infectious disease of the twentieth century. Fighting these killers is an ongoing battle, as each infection adapts to outwit our defenses. Ancient treatments ranged from using leeches to suck out blood to performing strange magical rituals, but nothing stopped the infection - until we discovered antibiotics. The average person now takes two courses of antibiotics every year. In the war against infection, we've begun to harness science to fight back, developing 'magic bullets' designed to kill specific infections without harming the body's own cells.
