Beating Sniffles
What do I actually do? I am a university academic working in
research. In brief, I am trying to cure the common cold, in some ways the
classic problem – as in ‘they can put monkeys into space but they can’t cure
the common cold’ (whoever ‘they’ are). Why is this important? Simply put,
everyone gets colds! There are a number of infections that are fascinating and
deadly, but it is extremely unlikely that those of you reading this have had
Lassa fever or bubonic plague. It is fairly unlikely that you have had one of
the big three - malaria, HIV or tuberculosis, but all of you had some form of
cold, acute upper respiratory tract infection to those of us in the know(se). More
importantly respiratory tract infections are the main cause of death by
infectious disease – for example pneumonia. Also some groups of people, for
example asthmatics, the elderly, pregnant women and babies, are much more
susceptible to these infections and no one likes sick babies. Lung disease has
a large economic impact, lung disease the NHS approximately £6 billion in 2006
(British Thoracic Society figures), the same as two new aircraft carriers. In
addition to direct costs to the NHS, lung infection costs money in time off
work directly because of infection and time off work looking after dependants
(babies and the elderly – the very people who get sick the most). Common colds
also contribute to the incorrect prescription of antibiotics, ¾ of colds are
caused by viruses which are unaffected by antibiotics and the more antibiotics
are misused, the less powerful they are when they are really needed. Finally,
though colds in most people they are mild, respiratory infections can cause major
pandemics for example influenza, SARS and MERS infecting millions of people and
cause significant levels of mortality. So you can see this is a valid area for
research, that impacts all of our lives.
The Future
What’s to come? My plan is to ramble on about subjects of
interest to me on a semi-irregular basis. I will also describe the AMAZING
research I do. I will also try and share some insight/ spread
disinformation about the life of a lecturer. The following subjects may or may
not be included in the future, funding, working parents, translational
research, the impact of student fees on the culture of learning in higher
education. Alternatively I may just talk about my lunch.
