© 2001 Cable News Network 
September 7, 2001
By Richard Stenger

(CNN) -- Humanity has fought long and hard against diseases and insects. Now a Harvard scientist has tallied up the bill for the unintended costs, the rapid evolution of super bugs.

The application of drugs and insecticides to combat pathogens and crop pests has induced our mite-sized enemies to mutate quickly, which can render newer generations highly resistant to the chemicals.

To fight the quickly evolving creatures, the United States must spend between $30 billion and $50 billion a year, according to biologist Steve Palumbi.

"We are in an explosive arms race with many disease and pest species," said Palumbi, who reported his findings in the September 7 edition of the journal Science.

"Those are minimal annual costs in the United States, based on just two disease organisms and the impact of insect pests in agriculture. These were the only good numbers I have found so far, but they add up to a surprising bill," he said

The worldwide costs, while not tallied, certainly run much higher. Containing the rapidly mutating AIDS virus, for example, could exceed hundreds of billions of dollars.

The present approach to combating super mutants is all defense and no offense: Wait for a new strain to emerge and then devise a new drug or pesticide to fight it.

The approach is hardly a good one, Palumbi argues. Scientists should intervene to slow the evolution of the tiny antagonists before new strains appear, he added.

'Evolutionary maelstrom'

He gives the case study of major bacterial infections in recent decades. Doctors have relied on increasingly expensive drugs to fight them, such as penicillin, vancomycin, Methicillin and Zyvox.

But most of the pathogens have evolved resistance to the succession of antibiotics. Some have become incurable.

"The cost of one type of infection is billions and billions higher than it would be if evolution of resistance hadn't occurred," Palumbi said.

The situation could be worsened by genetically modified organisms, which, sown in agricultural fields, could spark an "evolutionary maelstrom" by inducing rapid evolution in insects and weeds.

Palumbi has nothing against chemicals, but thinks that they can be used much more effectively in the battle against the bugs. Some hospitals, for example, switch antibiotics on a regular basis to impede the ability of diseases to become immune to them.

"Battling evolutionary arms races costs a huge amount, but we can reduce this amount by 'drugging smarter not harder' and incorporating the potential for evolution into current policies," he said. Error: Unable to read footer file.