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New Superbug Weapon to Replace Failing Antibiotics

Posted by samzenpus on from the that-which-doesn't-kill-me dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers in British Columbia have identified a peptide that can fight infection by boosting the immune system. Because antibiotics are under threat due to an explosion of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, this may be just in time."

5 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Source? by Piedramente · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do I have a hard time trusting a source like "curedeath.com"?

  2. Over-prescribed by SpiffyMarc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe if we didn't prescribe an antibiotic for everything that can ever go wrong with a person, there wouldn't be so many resistant strains.

    Sniffles? Take an antibiotic.

    1. Re:Over-prescribed by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, stopping when you feel better is a pretty good idea. The bug is gone, and the body will take care of the rest. The more time you expose organisms to antibiotics, the more time they have to adapt to it.

      It doesn't work that way. When you're infected, some of the bacteria have more resistance than others -- resistance is a fairly complicated trait; it's not binary. So if you stop "as soon as you feel better," what this means is that you've killed off just enough of the least resistant bacteria so that you don't notice the symptoms of infection any more; there are still plenty of somewhat-more-but-not-completely resistant bacteria in your body, and you've created a massive selective pressure favoring those strains. Whereas if you finish the prescribed course of antibiotics, you're wiping out all but the very most resistant -- and that's likely to be a fairly small number, which your immune system can indeed deal with on its own, now that most of the bacteria overall are out of they way.

      I hate to bring up such a politically charged analogy, but this is the best way I can think of to explain it: suppose you're planning to invade a country and eliminate all resistance. You have two courses of action available:

      (a) Attack, keep attacking, kill anyone who resists, and even after visible resistance has ceased, keep aggressively patrolling every square foot of the country until well after you're sure that everyone who might oppose your rule is dead.

      (b) Attack, kill off the most visible opponents, ease up until a rebellion starts, kill a few more people until things quiet down, ease up until a rebellion starts, kill a few more people ...

      Which option do you think is likely to be most effective? Conversely, which one do you think is most likely to produce a hardened and pretty much ineradicable resistance? Hint: (b) is pretty much what people who stop taking antibiotics as soon as they feel better are doing.

      Of course, my analogy should only be interpreted in medical terms. Doesn't have anything to do with anything else that's going on in the world. Uh-uh. Not a bit. No sirree.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. Clean = Immune Retardation by PixieDust · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Part of the reason Antibiotics have been overprescribed is in our world of super ultra hygeine concious society, people are killing off all the germs they can everywhere. People sanitize their hands 50 times a day. This is all well and good, and healthy, but it also causes a problem. Without exposure to various germs, bacteria, etc. people's immune systems actually atrophy. So when they get a little bug that a 'normal' immune system could kick without much trouble, theirs can't, or they fraek out because they are ultra health concious, so they go to the Dr. Dr sees what's going on, prescribes an anti-biotic because John Q and Sally public are so afraid to go a few weeks with the sniffles and let it run their course.

    The end result is that a person's immune system no longer has to do it's job, job gets done for it. The immune system becoems weaker, they get sick more, then get more anti-biotics.

    Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

  4. Re:Waaa, Doctor Help Me by wkk2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My mother was a nurse trained in the 40's. Since this was before major antibiotic use, significant training was about sanitation control. No wrist watches (since you might not wash), how to change bed sheets (to minimize airborne dust), and proper washing.

    Now we have keyboards, remote controls, and all kinds of stuff that can't be cleaned. She died from an infection carried by improperly sterilized diagnostic equipment.

    Today, hospital care seems to be more about pushing pills and foregoing the basics so it's no wonder we have resistant bugs.