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Mutant Mosquitos
guacamolefoo writes "Get me Stryker now! Mutant mosquitos are spreading West Nile Virus and malaria! And to think you thought that X-men 3 would be a rehash of the Dark Phoenix saga. Real life is much more interesting."
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...specifically this version, but I can't recall whether I read about it on fark.com, news.google.com, or if it is a slashdot dupe.
It means that the superbugs, which are harder to kill now, can still pass on the regular bugs to us. We just have to find a new way to kill them.
This is the kind of thing that is feared will happen as doctors continue to over-prescribe anti-biotics. The anti-biotics will expose small numbers bacteria in people (though not necessarily enough to cause a disease) to a selective factor: either they die, or they don't. If they don't that means they are resistant by some sort of mutation, and will pass this resistence on to any sort of offspring they produce. Someday, when one of these resistant bacteria infect a receptive host, and someone does get sick, the normal anti-biotics we use to treat them won't work. And the deadly cycle continues.
People didn't actually cause this problem, rather, they accelerate it by introducing the selective factor (the pesticide in this case) where it otherwise wouldn't have been.
It's kind of a catch 22, you use pesticides to prevent disease by killing bugs. At the same time, you may be encouraging a superbug to emerge.
Doctors give people pills to shut them up. For example, if you have a cold, you may wind up with a script for amoxil, even though it doesn't affect the virus causing your symptoms. You may have a small amount of strep lurking in your system that's not enough to get you sick, but can still be transmitted. Maybe one of those (or god forbid more than one) are resistant. The amoxil kills all the normal bacteria, and you're left with only a resistant strain. You can still pass them on and get someone else sick, even though you didn't get sick yourself. They will now go to the same doctor, and get a useless script for amoxil, etc... Sorry if I'm insulting your intelligence.
Farmers spray their crops because they think they are being preventative. I don't think that people should stop using pesticides, but only in the event that bugs are a problem. Using deadly poison 'just in case' only invites trouble sooner than later.
So the next time you're upset that the doctor doesn't give you anti-biotics for your cold symptoms, remember, the life they save may be your grandchild['s|rens'].
Speak for yourself.