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New Wave of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
reporter writes "New strains of 'Gram-negative' bacteria have become resistant to all safe antibiotics. Though methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the best-known antibiotic-resistant germ, the new class of resistant bacteria could be more dangerous still. 'The bacteria, classified as Gram-negative because of their reaction to the so-called Gram stain test, can cause severe pneumonia and infections of the urinary tract, bloodstream, and other parts of the body. Their cell structure makes them more difficult to attack with antibiotics than Gram-positive organisms like MRSA.' The only antibiotics — colistin and polymyxin B — that still have efficacy against Gram-negative bacteria produce dangerous side effects: kidney damage and nerve damage. Patients who are infected with Gram-negative bacteria must make the unsavory choice between life with kidney damage or death with intact kidneys. Recently, some new strains of Gram-negative bacteria have shown resistance against even colistin and polymyxin B. Infection with these new strains typically means death for the patient."
Anyone remember Phage Therapy?
Would it be possible to at least take one (or both) Kidneys offline? Basically, run your body through a dialysis machine during the antibiotic procedure. Of course, this would have to be an extreme life or death situation to consider the possibility.
Life is not for the lazy.
Assuming they delay the process by a decade, 200,000-300,000 in the U.S., but that is assuming that all of those people are otherwise healthy.
That's more than AIDs but less than car accidents (and a hilarious footnote compared to heart disease and cancer).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
In fact, more than 60% of the Gram negative isolates in our hospital (in-patients) appear to be producing an enzyme called extended spectrum beta lactamases (ESBL). These ESBL-strains are often resistant to other classes of antibiotics as well, narrowing therapeutic options. In a subset of cases, these bugs turn up as resistant to almost all the antibiotics we test.
But, I am yet to come across a case where the isolate was resistant to colistin and polymyxin B. No clinician would even think of using these drugs if other options are available. But, if, as the article reports, these organisms turn out to be resistant to even these last-resort drug... we can safely assume that we are in deep shit.
When visiting a doctor for a sinus infection, he said that in India they would take a swab from my nose, determine in a few minutes with a microscope what bacteria was bothering me, and give me a specific antibiotic that was known to work well.
In the USA, he said insurance tells them to just proscribe an antibiotic and if it doesn't work, they'll come back. The ten minutes of lab work isn't covered by insurance, so they don't do it. I asked if I could pay cash for the test with the microscope, but he refused and said he'd get in trouble.
Most doctors follow insurance rules, worry about liability, and treat symptoms, in that order.
You will be free to continue using expensive antibiotics on your farm...
We raise antibiotic-free beef. Grain-fed, but no chemicals. You generally don't need antibiotics for free-range beef. Antibiotics are needed when you're doing large-scale industrial farming where the cattle are packed together like sardines and an infection in one animal quickly spreads throughout the barn like wildfire.
We give our animals room to roam. We do it for humane reasons -- we think it's inhumane to put an animal in a pen and never allow it to leave. I don't know any family-run farm operations that raise cattle in pens: free-ranging is almost an article of faith among us.
You are not the first person to assume that I'm in favor of putting antibiotics in beef. I'm not. I'm in favor of free-ranging them because I think it's required by the decency standards of animal husbandry.
I am also in favor of grain-fed animals, because we simply cannot produce beef in the amount demanded by the market without it.
Considering that the old new class of designer antimicrobials that your company developed for the handsoap market .. contributed to creation of this new designer bug strain ... your optimism isn't giving me a warm fuzzy feeling right now
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain