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'Superbug' Resistant To 26 Antibiotics Kills A Patient In Nevada (upi.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the immortal-infections dept.

An anonymous reader quotes UPI: A Nevada woman in her 70s who'd recently returned from India died in September from a "superbug" infection that resisted all antibiotics, according to a report released Friday... The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "basically reported that there was nothing in our medicine cabinet to treat this lady," report co-author Dr. Randall Todd told the Reno Gazette-Journal. He's director of epidemiology and public health preparedness for the Washoe County Health District, in Reno... CDC testing subsequently revealed the germ was New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase -- a highly resistant form of CRE typically found outside the United States.

10 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Scientists and doctors.. by ckatko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...have been warning us for decades and nobody cared to listen.

    Enjoy your new wave of death, humanity.

    1. Re:Scientists and doctors.. by Bowling+Moses · · Score: 5, Informative

      When did you check and how did you check? It took me seconds to find a recent article from Scientific American entitled "Delaying Vaccines Increases Risks--with No Added Benefits."

      I want people to get vaccinated based off the CDC's recommended timing because their schedule is based on science (epidemiology, virology, immunology, bacteriology, etc.) and not the evidence-free opinion of some random person who has zero training in any relevant field.

  2. Look to history by namgge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Time to start remembering how infection was controlled in the 30s and 40s before antibiotics came along. People from that generation were really keen on (a) quarantining, (b) keeping hospitals spotless and (c) cleaning even the smallest wound with iodine in alcohol. I still recall the stinging pain.

    1. Re:Look to history by chill · · Score: 5, Informative

      You, sir or madam, are a lying sack of dangerous shit.

      Quote WebMD:

      "Home Remedy No-No Number 4: Colloidal Silver

      With hype and hope spread by word of mouth and the Internet, colloidal silver is believed by some to help treat a range of infections and diseases.

      "People believe that colloidal silver can treat fungal infections, TB, HIV, herpes, and even cancer by boosting the immune system," says Ted Epperly, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

      Unfortunately for colloidal sliver supporters, they're wrong, and the consequences of their mistake could be costly.

      "One of the most well-known side effects of colloidal silver is that it turns a person's skin a greyish shade of blue," says Epperly.

      The skin isn't the only organ affected by colloidal silver; so are the kidneys, stomach, and brain, as well as the nervous system. Silver is actually deposited into the cells of these organs, possibly causing cell damage and death, leading to organ failure.

      "The effects of colloidal silver are toxic and cumulative," says Epperly. "Worse, they're irreversible."

      Epperly urges people to ignore the hype and instead, talk to a health care provider about the proper way to treat infections and diseases.

      http://www.webmd.com/women/features/5-home-remedy-no-nos#3

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  3. Re:oops by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Probably no one. With a few notable exceptions (bacterial meningitis, TB) most bacterial infections aren't very contagious. You mainly pick them up if you're exposed to a large source of them in the environment (drinking or swimming in contaminated water, poorly cleaned kitchens, cuts, that kind of thing) or if you have an already weakened immune system.

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  4. Indiscriminate antibiotic use in farm animals... by mspohr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Industrial meat farmers in the US (and other countries) use literally tons of antibiotics to improve "yields". This leads to resistant strains of bacteria which are passed to humans. Use in chickens and pigs is particularly problematic because of the large amount of antibiotics and the widespread distribution. Most chicken you buy in the store is contaminated with drug resistant bacteria.
    Just say no to antibiotic treated animals.

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  5. Time to get serious by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reality is that most resistant strains of bacteria originate from antibiotics abuse, and the biggest abusers of antibiotics are third world countries and those who raise livestock. Normal un-resistant bacteria are actually more healthy vital and will grow and displace resistant strains because resistant strains are typically resistant due to the fact that they are missing receptors or features that antibiotics use to kill the bacteria. Those same features allow normal bacteria to be stronger and multiply faster than the resistant strains.

    What the doctors and scientists are only recently realizing is that the way to deal with resistant strains is that we must crack down on antibiotics abuse in these two areas globally, and greatly step up and enforce the use of post-antibiotic use of un-resistant probiotics, replenishing the healthy, easy to kill bacteria in people and farm animals which then come out in their waste/manure/fertilizer or sometimes on the meat/eggs/milk etc. and spread from there.

    I recall reading about a river in India where a pharmaceutical had been illegally dumping waste antibiotics and something like 90% of all bacteria tested in the river were resistant. The solution, after stopping the pollution, should have been to seed the river with a continuous stream of healthy un-resistant bacteria, and over time (maybe a year) the healthy, un-resistant bacteria would supplant the resistant strains 99% of the time, greatly reducing the odds of exposure to a resistant strain. We are just now discovering that regular old soil bacteria have over 40 different methods of killing off resistant bacteria that are completely new to us. We can and will convert some into new antibiotics, but we must learn from the past and minimize the spread of resistant strains of bacteria now by spreading as much as possible the un-resistant strains which will in turn supplant the resistant strains we have fostered around the globe with minimal additional human intervention.

    http://www.the-scientist.com/?...

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  6. Re: Think of it as evolution in action. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kidney stones

  7. Re:Welcome to India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Instructions unclear. Dick stuck in a cactus.

  8. Re:Indians: if their food doesn't kill you, their by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Just FYI, Indians hate Muslims."

    That's not possible. Only white people can be racist. Everyone else on the world exhales fairy dust.