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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.
Since the linked article is still a few clicks away from the actual list, which is then a PDF, here is the actual list:
Priority 1: CRITICAL
Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, 3rd generation cephalosporin-resistant
Priority 2: HIGH
Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin intermediate and resistant
Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant
Campylobacter, fluoroquinolone-resistant
Salmonella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae, 3rd generation cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant
Priority 3: MEDIUM
Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible
Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant
Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
Source: http://www.who.int/medicines/p...
The president says he's going to get us out of WHO, so problem solved.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.
And please bring back the copper clads in the hospital, door plates, stairs, door knobs, bedsides, chairs etc.
Copper kills bacteria, including the antibiotic-resistant ones, everybody knows that, except apparently the hospital staffs.
Silver also, but that might be a bit too expensive.
Dead bacteria can not be transferred to other people...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
I'm a Brit (on disability welfare myself actually), and I'm pretty sure I'd be dead without socialised healthcare. Which, also, has fuck all to do with the quality of healthcare available. If you want shorter waiting times for non-critical conditions (the ones that require something fancy like major surgery but that you can easily survive a few months or so waiting for), doctors more willing to try very expensive and not very successful treatments etc, nothing stops you from having private health insurance and seeing private doctors, if you can afford it. The only difference is that if you can't afford it, you still have access to free, high quality healthcare. I've never understood this argument - it's not like having socialised healthcare makes private healthcare illegal.
Spot on. I'm a Brit too and would be quite happy spending my whole life paying into the NHS without ever having to use it.
The American system where you can get hit with a disease, or have an accident, and then die because you can't afford the treatment is barbaric and medieval.