A Post-Antibiotic Future Is Looming (www.cbc.ca)

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 22, 2015 @12:42AM from the get-in-line-behind-all-the-other-dystopian-futures dept.

New submitter radaos writes: A gene enabling resistance to polymyxins, the antibiotics of last resort, has been found to be widespread in pigs and already present in some hospital patients. The research, from South China Agricultural University, has been published in The Lancet. According to research Jian-Hua Liu, "Our results reveal the emergence of the first polymyxin resistance gene that is readily passed between common bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klesbsiella pneumoniae, suggesting that the progression from extensive drug resistance to pandrug resistance is inevitable." Work on alternatives is progressing — Dr. Richard James, former director of the University of Nottingham's center for healthcare associated infections, writes, "Until last month I was still pessimistic about our chances of avoiding the antibiotics nightmare. But that changed when I attended a workshop in Beijing on a new approach to antibiotic development based on bacteriocins – protein antibiotics produced by bacteria to kill closely related species, and exquisitely narrow-spectrum."

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Re:Yeah, that's the problem by cascadingstylesheet · 2015-11-22 01:00 · Score: -1, Offtopic

We need more medical personnel, or nothing we do to try to fight these resistant illnesses is going to make a difference because we won't have the manpower to implement it.
Sorry, the affordable care act requires more bureaucrats, and less doctors. Doctors are the evil 1% anyway, so we must drain them dry. Can't imagine why fewer people would want to enter and stay in that profession.