Media, Entertainment and Sport

Social media is helping to treat and cure rare diseases. Here's how

Christian LaVallee prepares solutions for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at the Health Protection Agency in north London March 9, 2011. For decades scientists have managed to develop new medicines to stay at least one step ahead of the ever-mutating enemy, bacteria. Now, though, we may be running out of road. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, alone is estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States -- far more than HIV and AIDS -- and a similar number in Europe, and other drug-resistant superbugs are spreading. Picture taken March 9, 2011. To match Special Report ANTIBIOTICS

Social media has been a big part of many of the advances in identifying and treating rare diseases. Image: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Meredith Salisbury
Editorial Director/Senior Consultant, Bioscribe
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