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WHO Issues a List of 12 Most Worrying Drug-Resistant Bacteria (medicalxpress.com)

Artem Tashkinov quotes a report from Medical Xpress: The World Health Organization has issued a list of the top dozen bacteria most dangerous to humans, warning that doctors are fast running out of treatment options. WHO said the most-needed drugs are for germs that threaten hospitals, nursing homes and among patients who need ventilators or catheters. The agency said the dozen listed resistant bacteria are increasingly untreatable and can cause fatal infections; most typically strike people with weakened immune systems. At the top of WHO's list is Acinetobacter baumannii, a group of bacteria that cause a range of diseases from pneumonia to blood or wound infections. In recent years, health officials have detected a few patients resistant to colistin, the antibiotic of last resort. So far, doctors have been able to treat them with other drugs. But experts worry that the colistin-resistant bacteria will spread their properties to other bacteria already resistant to more commonly used antibiotics, creating germs that can't be killed by any known drugs.

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  1. Re:23,000 Die from Bacteria 250k Die from Malpract by XXongo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Uh, what the fuck does your libertarian rant have to do with Obamacare?

    A properly administered free-market system that allows insurers to cross state lines and removes a lot of the useless regulatory BS that makes practitioners hesitant to treat people will save tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of people who will otherwise die thanks to the Obamacare act.

    Bullshit. Pure, unmitigated bullshit. America has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Here's a clue for the clueless: it's not because of government regulation, and it was the most expensive in the world (and one of the worst) even before Obama was elected. The "socialist" healthcare systems of Europe are both cheaper and also better. Yeah, libertarianism works great --when you've never been outside your basement.

    Here's what laissez-faire capitalist healthcare really looks like: the health care conglomerates soak sick people for all they can take, because sick people don't have the resources to bargain. Then, when they run out of money, you let them die. For the conglomerates, it's like a money spigot.

    For the sick people, of course, it's a death trap with the added feature that it bankrupts you, too.