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Drug-Resistant 'Nightmare Bacteria' Pose Growing Threat (statnews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tread-carefully dept.

"Nightmare bacteria" with unusual resistance to antibiotics of last resort were found more than 200 times in the United States last year in a first-of-a-kind hunt to see how much of a threat these rare cases are becoming, health officials said this week. From a report: That's more than they had expected to find, and the true number is probably higher because the effort involved only certain labs in each state, officials say. The problem mostly strikes people in hospitals and nursing homes who need IVs and other tubes that can get infected. In many cases, others in close contact with these patients also harbored the superbugs even though they weren't sick -- a risk for further spread. Some of the sick patients had traveled for surgery or other health care to another country where drug-resistant germs are more common, and the superbug infections were discovered after they returned to the U.S.

87 comments

  1. That's it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're DOOMED!

  2. Terrible by 110010001000 · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is terrible. Did you know that 102 people die in car crashes every day in the US? And 1,300 people die from smoking? But yeah, they found 200 instances of bacteria in labs last year. Time to panic.

    1. Re:Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is terrible. Did you know that 102 people die in car crashes every day in the US? And 1,300 people die from smoking? But yeah, they found 200 instances of bacteria in labs last year. Time to panic.

      From the article...

      Bugs and drugs are in a constant battle, as germs evolve to resist new and old antibiotics. About 2 million Americans get infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year and 23,000 die

    2. Re:Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I for one welcome our new I.T. closet cleaner overlord.

    3. Re:Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      oh man, I saw this glowing ember, but was like "pfft, why bother doing anything about it, it's just a tiny little ember".

      then my house burnt down

      all because I followed your idiotic reasoning.

    4. Re:Terrible by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      You shouldn't listen to idiots on the Internet. You learned a valuable lesson today.

    5. Re:Terrible by BronsCon · · Score: 2

      Well now he's gonna listen to idiots on the internet because some idiot in the internet told him not to right after he learned not to. The logic is there, but I'm not sure I put it together correctly... ;)

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    6. Re:Terrible by mark-t · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If there was no observable indication that the number appeared to be increasing at alarming rates, as is the case with the other statistics you cited, then your sarcastically delivered point about panicking about this would be well made.

      If you are observing an exponential growth in the number of cases from year to year, however, then the fact that its observed impact so far may not yet have grown to be even anywhere nearly as significant as the impact of other factors is not sufficient cause to be so dismissive.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    7. Re:Terrible by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      BronsCon said "Well now he's not gonna listen to idiots on the internet".

      -apk

    8. Re:Terrible by BronsCon · · Score: 0

      Hah! I was hoping you'd see the humor in my post and it appears that you did.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    9. Re:Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But yeah, they found 200 instances of bacteria in labs last year. Time to panic.

      Panic? No. Cause for concern? Absolutely.

      Start having strains of bacteria which you have no means to eliminate, and if people do start getting these on a large scale (and the only reason they showed up in labs was because people actually had them) .. then you have some serious problems:

      "These verge on untreatable infections" where the only option may be supportive care - fluids and sometimes machines to maintain life to give the patient a chance to recover

      Untreatable infections in hospitals doesn't end well.

      Perhaps a link to the actual CDC spelling this out would help with your stupidity? Because they're the ones saying "if we don't act now, this will become really bad".

    10. Re:Terrible by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      Spot on, it's not that 200 is a large number when you consider the population of the US, it's that that 200 could potentially grow.

      We'd be foolish if 10 years from now this number balloons and we had done nothing to nip it in the bud. 200 cases isn't the end of the world, but it's a sign we need to do something.

      Mr. Binary number above pointed out the number of car deaths and Smoking each year... yes, of course those are much larger (for now) but we also spend an awful lot of time and money as a society fighting both those issues already.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    11. Re:Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then why do you deny Global Climate Change?

    12. Re:Terrible by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Why would you believe I deny it?

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    13. Re:Terrible by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      This is terrible. Did you know that 102 people die in car crashes every day in the US? And 1,300 people die from smoking? But yeah, they found 200 instances of bacteria in labs last year. Time to panic.

      Oh, no. Someone died in a car crash a few blocks from me, and then the car crash spread to the first responders, which spread to the police officer who eats at the restaurant where I ate a few days ago, and now I might die from that car wreck, too.... No, wait. Those things aren't similar.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    14. Re:Terrible by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      'ER', no, you panic with patient number 1 if the disease is sufficiently dangerous and virulent. Every dangerous contagion kicks off with patient zero, and that is where you want to get to it and prevent it from spreading. Fortunately with less complex life forms, there is only so much DNA to get around, sure it can resist some or anti-biotics but not all, not enough DNA in any particular bacterial cell to resist them all. It just requires a more complex anti-biotic made up of several anti-biotics. Each with specific attack vectors in relationship to bacterial DNA biases and of course differing side affects for the patient so as to reduce patient impact, whilst creating a more complex attack upon the bacteria, one which can not be effectively selectively resisted. Sure resist one or two or maybe even three at the same time but the fourth gets them, and whilst the dose would be high as long as the antibiotic side affects do not compound, to exacerbate those side affects, everything should work out fine. So less filler and more different antibiotics combined in the one dose, at one time, to exceed limited resistance capabilities of any one cell (not the entire bacterial strain, which could well have resistance too all those anti-biotics but no single bacteria has resistance to all those anti-biotics and so in conjuction the entire strain is eliminated via one vector or another, all delivered at the same time)

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    15. Re:Terrible by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I would be more concerned if cars became self aware deceptacons who like facehuggers attacked people in a way that allowed them to multiple and spread onto other people in an exponential manner.

      But they aren't. They are just cars, when when you don't move them they don't spread death like ... the plague. That's an interesting analogy. These drug resistant bacteria are like ... the plague.

      Now when cars or smoking manage to kill 214million (60% of the population) Americans in 7 years then we can start worrying about cars as much as unleashing the next super virus.

    16. Re:Terrible by rickyslashdot · · Score: 1

      Woops - day late & mod points short - - -
      SERIOUSLY appropriate.
      Car crashes, Smoking, Cancer - all types, DEATH AS A DISEASE
      ALL of these issues NEED to be dealt with before we panic over a few dozen cases of drug-resistant bacteria.
      The bacteria will ALWAYS find a mutation that will manage to survive attacks against it/them - they have done so for many hundreds of millions of years. AND, we are living in a world-wide culture dish that is slamming the bacteria with massive (and often inappropriate) dosages of antibiotics, leading to faster mutation rates to survive these attacks. Due to their incredibly rapid reproduction rates (sometimes as short as minutes), these creatures will (probably) always find a survival mutation, and continue to pose a risk for some.

      --
      redneck geek
  3. Re:Moscow Donald is a bigger threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I agree it's illegal. Therefore it should be easy to provide the specific laws and which one Donald broke?

  4. Re: How is this a recurring problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And then the microbe evolves antiphage resistance... next?

  5. Re:Moscow Donald is a bigger threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Money laundering, unregistered foreign agent, bribery, treason, obstruction of justice.

  6. No they don't by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

    Stop panicking people.

    Phage therapy has been around for @100yrs! The only people in danger are the anti-biotic sellers

    1. Re:No they don't by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      I prefer leech therapy and blood letting.

    2. Re:No they don't by Guybrush_T · · Score: 1

      Except antibiotics are curing people who would die otherwise, so it is concerning if antibiotics no longer work.

      It should be kept as a last option against serious diseases (to save us the day a very bad one appears), instead of a way to increase agricultural productivity.

    3. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one cares about your creimer fixation.

    4. Re:No they don't by Gilgaron · · Score: 3, Informative

      You have to take the time to figure out what phage to use. This is much slower than broad spectrum antibiotics. In a case of septicemia it would be the difference between living and dying. Phage therapy is very promising, but not for all the same use cases. For curing a chronic infection it'd be ideal.

    5. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet here you are, Chris.

    6. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Chis is not here, nipple dick."

      Who the fuck is Chis, pizza nipples? Too dumb to keep your stale comebacks in a text file, Chris?

      " I'm here and I'm trolling you."

      Seems to me you're reacting, not being proactive.

      "Chris is on YouTube. He put out two more videos since he bought Slashdot for three pennies."

      Since you promised to put out one video a day in April, it seems you're already 50% behind schedule, yet have time to search for your name in every new Slashdot story.

      "Why don't you troll him on YouTube "

      Not worth it.

      "and leave the rest of us alone on Slashdot?"

      What "us", Chris? No one else cares about you. There's no one on "Team Creimer".

    7. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Same shitty math skills."

      Same as what, Chris? Your crammar is giving you away.

      "The Slashdot community that doesn't care about your creimer fixation."

      The same community that doesn't care about you, your videos, or your ebooks? That community? BTW, where's my copy of "Unemployable"?

      "All I have to do is say, Chris, and you will shit your pants. Sad."

      Who the fuck is Chris?

    8. Re:No they don't by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      Except antibiotics are curing people who would die otherwise, so it is concerning if antibiotics no longer work.

      No, they are curing people who could also be cured by phage therapy, so if antibiotics stop working, we can just use phage therapy to get the same results.

    9. Re:No they don't by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      You have to take the time to figure out what phage to use. This is much slower than broad spectrum antibiotics.

      Granted it is slower, but it's debatable whether or not it is significantly so. And the "just slap some antibiotics onto it first" approach is one of the ways we got into this mess to begin with.

      In a case of septicemia it would be the difference between living and dying.

      Only in backwater countries without public healthcare; in most places preventing septicemia is pretty routine.

    10. Re:No they don't by Guybrush_T · · Score: 1

      Oh, I failed to see you were mentioning phage therapy.

      Surely an interesting subject, but unless you can predict the future, stating that it can replace antibiotics entirely and for the best is presumptuous. Large scale / long term effects are hard to predict.

    11. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like FatCashewsLovesMe much more than I like you/creimer.

      If we followed Creimer off Slashdot onto other sites it could be viewed as harassment, if we limit our expressions of disapproval to the comment section of Slashdot then we're merely rejecting him which is perfectly legal. I know you think that you're going to "game the youtube algorithm" by driving offsite traffic into comment activity for your videos. But really, Imagine all of your 'trolls' in the comments section of your videos hurling insults and spamming things up with frank zappa lyrics. You'd cry like a baby if you ever actually got what you think you want.
      Maybe you think you don't care as long as you're making money but as the recent shooting shows, youtube has moved past the need to pay almost any of their content creators. It's quite easy to argue that demonetizing all but a hand picked group of youtube channels would actually improve the quality of content as people will keep making good content for free and those who want to "game the youtube algorithm" will no longer have incentive to upload 5000 videos of programmatically generated content for toddlers.

      I have reported this post for encouraging illegal activity on the forum. (Encouraging people to go offsite and harass a user)

    12. Re:No they don't by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      ...unless you can predict the future, stating that it can replace antibiotics entirely and for the best is presumptuous. Large scale / long term effects are hard to predict.

      I don't need to predict anything, they've been using phage therapy for exactly this purpose in Georgia going on almost 100yrs now, there's nothing to predict, we know it works

    13. Re:No they don't by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      If you've prevented septicemia you don't need to treat it with phages, either. Once it is in progress, phage therapy would not be as useful as antibiotics. Phage therapy would primarily be superior in less acute, more chronic style bacterial infections. Likewise, using them for such infections ought to help us keep new antibiotics effective for longer. Certainly phages could eliminate more 'luxury' use of antibiotics, like treating minor ear infections.

    14. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is the story of creimy the mountain and his royalties!

      This story was inspired by cdreimer, the parent poster. The story was written by a visionary on cdreimer birth date.

      The story of creimy the mountain explained:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Creimy is a typical mountain who poses for postcards, living with his wife Ethel, a tree, between the cities of Rosamund and Gorman, California. The main features on his mountainous face are two large caves, resembling eyes, and a cliff for a jaw, which moves up and down when he talks, puffing up dust and boulders.
      click above link to read more, he even destroyed Edwards Air Force Base just by passing by...

      Listen to the audio version here:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      "Creimy The Mountain"

      includes quotes from Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (Edward Elgar), Johnny's Theme (Paul Anka), Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder (Crawford), O Mein Papa (Paul Burkhard), Over The Rainbow (Harburg/Arlen), Star-Spangled Banner (Smith/Key), Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Stephen Stills)

      One, two, three

      CREIMY the Mountain
      CREIMY the Mountain
      A regular picturesque
      Postcardy mountain
      Residing between lovely
      Rosamond and Gorman
      With his stunning wife ETHELL, A tree! A tree!

      CREIMY was a mountain ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder

      CREIMY was a mountain
      (CREIMY was a mountain!)
      ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder
      (ETHELL was a tree growing off of his shoulder)
      (hey, hey hey!)

      Creimy had two big
      Caves for eyes,
      With a cliff for a jaw
      That would go up 'n down,
      And whenever it did,
      He'd puff out some dust,
      And hack up a boulder (HACK!) Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK!)
      Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK! HACK!) Up a boulder

      Now, one day, now I believe it was on a Tuesday, a man in a checkered double-knit suit drove up in a large El Dorado Cadillac, leased from BOB SPREEN

      ("Where the freeways meet in Downey!")

      And he laid a HUGE, BULGING ENVELOPE right at the corner of CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, that was right where his 'foot' was supposed to be.

      Now, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, he couldn't believe it! All those postcards he'd posed for, for ALL OF THOSE YEARS, and finally, now, AT LAST, his Royalties!

      Royalties! Royalties Royalties! Royalty check is in, honey!

      Yes, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN was RICH! Yes, and his eyeball-caves, they widened in amazement, and his jaw (which was a cliff), well it dropped thirty feet!

      A bunch of dust puffed out! Rocks and boulders hacked up, (hack! hack!) crushing 'The LINCOLN'!

      I gave him the money He acted real funny He hocked up a rock and It TOTALLED my car!

      Oh, do you Know any trucks Might be bound for THE VALLEY?
      I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (Dear Lord)

      I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (No shit!)

      I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar!

      By two o'clock, when the bars are already closed down, CREIMY had broken 'THE BIG NEWS' to ETHELL. And with dust and boulders everywhere, CREIMY, choked with excitement, announced

      "ETHELL, we're going on a VACATION!"

      Yes, and they WERE going on a vacation! (Oh, and ETHELL, ETHELL, ETHELL, like every little woman, she of course was very excited! She creaked a little bit, and some old birds flew off of her.) CREIMY told ETHELL they were going to Yes! They were going to NEW YORK!

      "ETHELL, we're going to New York!"

      But first they were gonna stop in LAS VEGAS

      It's off to LAS VEGAS to check out the lounges Pull a few handles,
      And drink a few beers, (Oh, ETHELL!)

      ETHELL, my darling, you know that I love you!
      I'm glad we could have a Vacation this year! (Oh, NEET-O!)

      Glad we could have a Vacation this year!

      They left that night, crunchin' across the Mojave Desert

    15. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There you are spamming amazon and youtube affiliate links with yet another fake account, you revenue stream hogging disgusting fat sexist tube of lard, Christopher Dale Reimer!

      You can be sure I will be watching this fake account too. I know this is you because you told me you were working on your freepass 11 file server and you are so dumb that you can't even masquerade yourself properly.

      Now, I told you I was out of meds last week and you didn't even care to contact me you lazy fucker.

      How many times do I have to express the emergency of the situation??????

      The python click script you wrote for my pheromone revenue stream web site suddenly stopped to work!!!!!!

      You fucking incompetent python script writer!!!

      When it works, I get 4000+ clicks a day on my pheromone revenue stream web site but only 5 or 6 without it!!!!

      Now, it seems like you dont care and that you have abandoned me you heartless fucking pig!

      Bonus:
      Here is a story that creimer told me when convincing me what a hard life he had:

      The tree was him and the tree knot was his butt hole!

      So, his uncle packed his fat ass with lard and with his cock! Not that it makes much of a difference but anyway, there it is!

      Signed:
      Ethell, The girl that used to love you and now hates you, burn in hell where you belong you sexist pig!

    16. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chris' case is getting worse, he spends all day replying to himself as AC on /. and now, on YouTube in order to grab attention!

      The tests we ran on Chris have shown that Chris has the intelligence of an ameba:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So, technically, he is able to conceive some kind of agenda but it will be silly or impossible to follow on a human scale.

      For example, Chris had an agenda to post anything he felt like on Slashdot which did not work well because it was based on his false beliefs that he had an infinite number of karma points as he wrote here several times.

      Several people here explained to Chris that karma maxed out at some level like 50 or so but Chris kept on insisting that his python script had confirmed that he had millions of karma points!

      Oh well, as I wrote before: "It isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody."

      For the valuable /. users that might already have read the following, please note that there is an important update.

      IMPORTANT UPDATE:
      Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education has invested money to buy Chris a new chair:
      http://www.keynamics.com/image...

      Information about Christopher Dale Reimer and autistic people:

      Autistic people have obsessions about things normal people don't care. For example, one of our autistic patient went haywire when he realized that there was a penny missing in his pocket change.

      To calm him down, one of our educator pretended to have found it on the floor and gave a penny to him.

      The autistic patient condition went even worse because he realized it wasn't the same penny!

      Chris has an obsession with budgeting every penny. He doesn't understand that most people do not budget to the penny and have a flexible amount they allow for miscellaneous items.

      I am Nancy Guerrero and I am Director of Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. We use Chris' (a.k.a. creimer,cdreimer) picture in our document because he is the hardest case we have ever had to handle:
      http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...

      Our artists were inspired by the low carb diet that Christopher follows scrupulously for the small lunch box and by the picture linked below for the rest. I am sure that you will notice the similarities such as the bump on the side of his chest and more:
      https://ibb.co/gVad65

      Please be easy on Christopher although, I am aware that some of our staff handling Chris post joke comments here and obvoiusly, the Santa Clara County Office of Education disapprove that behavior vehemently:
      http://ibb.co/mRVSaG

      But it isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody.

      Thank You dear users,
      ---
      Nancy Guerrero
      Director
      Special Education
      Santa Clara County Office of Education

    17. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha creimer! You are "Team creimer" all by yourself and now you are "The Slashdot community" all by yourself!

      What a miracle worker you are Chris!
      --
      Balena!

    18. Re:No they don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What happens if you throw on them mix of every phage you've got?
      Natural selection will bring out the winning phage.
      So, you get a sample of superbacteria, seed it on agar, grow it in large quantity, drop all of it it into a jar with phages, wait until colony is completely wiped out and now you have greater concentration of the right phages in the jar. Filter them through a porcelain filter and they are ready to go.

    19. Re:No they don't by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      A phage cocktail might work, but you have to be careful injecting too much foreign protein into a patient, so the devil would be in the details. The latter case you describe is why antibiotics are faster: you can guess and begin treatment before you're even sure what has infected the patient. In any case, for superbugs they usually won't be different from non-antibiotic resistant bacteria as far as the phage is concerned, so it'd be safer to grow a less virulent strain for stock. Then you could ideally just do a rapid PCR on the patient to determine bacterial species and apply the appropriate phage. Uncertain will be if phage overuse could lead to interesting restriction enzymes being as prevalent as antibiotic resistance genes, but as you point out evolution should help the phages keep up.

  7. Damn you Crichton! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't have watched Andromeda Strain last night. And this doesn't help at all...

  8. Agricultural profits by burtosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The reason antibiotics are losing effectiveness is due to agricultural practices and horizontal gene transfer as well as overuse or inappropriate use such as for viral infections or not finishing treatments. Most damage was done simply to make meat slightly cheaper to produce. It is fed 24/7/365 to animals stuffed cheek to jowl, with the overflow and waste washed into the waterways. This develops resistance faster than most any method short of purposefully engineering biological weapons. For that slim profit margin increase we have traded the modern safety that made dying of a small cut or inconsequential infection unheard of in most of the world. At this rate it's going to resemble ancient times when any surgery at all, even simple stitches, brought a high chance of a fatal infection.

    1. Re:Agricultural profits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean to tell me feeding chickens antibiotics 24/7 as a counter to living in pure shit conditions can lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria?!?!?!

      But where do I get my $0.89/lb chicken then?

    2. Re:Agricultural profits by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      To what animals is it fed? I'm suspecting poultry.

    3. Re:Agricultural profits by burtosis · · Score: 1

      Poultry, beef, pork are the major ones that I'm aware of. I've been buying antibiotics free poultry for some time and it's available for basically the same price at major supermarkets where I live. I don't buy organic, hormone free, or non-gmo which seem to affect price more but have been known to buy anyway if it's also antibiotic free. According to Wikipedia it's use on pig growth is the most studied and 90% of all antibiotics go to livestock. Just to clarify, it's not the meat that's harmful, but the strains of resistant bacteria are.

    4. Re:Agricultural profits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure most factory-farmed animals: poultry, beef, pork

    5. Re:Agricultural profits by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The irony is not lost on me that a lot of the not finishing treatments is done because of fear of "big pharma" controlling your lives.

      Why should I keep taking this drug if I'm healthy?
      Don't worry, soon you won't have to because it won't help you even when you're sick.

    6. Re:Agricultural profits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason antibiotics are losing effectiveness is due to agricultural practices and horizontal gene transfer as well as overuse or inappropriate use such as for viral infections or not finishing treatments. Most damage was done simply to make meat slightly cheaper to produce. It is fed 24/7/365 to animals stuffed cheek to jowl, with the overflow and waste washed into the waterways. This develops resistance faster than most any method short of purposefully engineering biological weapons. For that slim profit margin increase we have traded the modern safety that made dying of a small cut or inconsequential infection unheard of in most of the world. At this rate it's going to resemble ancient times when any surgery at all, even simple stitches, brought a high chance of a fatal infection.

      just remember though, we can't have any regulations to fix it because that would not be 'business friendly', it would make you a pinko SJW commie fascist to suggest it.

    7. Re:Agricultural profits by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Sure, that makes sense. I agree. I just idly wonder if you live in ranch country, as I do, with a LOT of free range animals (aka "home of the range, where the deer and the antelope play" if they're fed antibiotics as much. I have no idea but want now to find out.

  9. Re:Moscow Donald is a bigger threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These aren't laws. Cite the relevant law pertaining to treason.

  10. Causes by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    The causes of antibiotic resistance are interesting. Including insufficient treatment of wastewater of both human effluent and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. At least these look like solvable problems that can help, as well as banning antibiotic use in animal feed and tightening pharmaceutical retail practices in some countries.

    Governments also need to step up their involvement in pharmaceutical research and development of antibiotics because the pharma companies aren't interested in doing it. You know, governments' responsibility to protect their citizens from harm?

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
    1. Re:Causes by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Yes, the best use of a new antibiotic is to put it on a shelf and not use it until you really need to, the antithesis of any normal ROI seeking product development. The private sector won't have incentives to develop them without government grants.

    2. Re:Causes by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

      Yes, it'd make sense for countries to pool their resources and knowledge too. Some umbrella organisation like the WHO could coordinate efforts.

      --
      Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  11. Re:Moscow Donald is a bigger threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If those aren't laws then why is Moscow Donald's Russia connected campaign manager facing life in prison?

  12. Re:Moscow Donald is a bigger threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does that have to do with Donald's supposed treason? Please stay on topic.

  13. Single Payer health care by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    the agriculture antibiotics aren't helping, but there's already regulations to try and get that under control by mandating they get off antibiotics.

    OTOH, I can't tell you how many poor people I know who stop taking their antibiotics when they feel better. They give you a couple extra days to kill off the infection completely. Around day 3 or 4 you've just created a new strain of antibiotic resistant bacteria that you personally are resistant to. Folks don't stop taking the meds so they can try and save them for the next time or for their kids. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have to worry about coming up with money every time they get sick.

    tl;dr: There are broad health consequences for public health when you deny care to people who can't or won't pay.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Single Payer health care by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      An awful lot of folks who do this do have access to care and abuse antibiotics as well. AFAIK for western Europe only NORWAY doesn't have too much in the way of antibiotic resistant bacteria - I know UK has a lot and the NHS is free at point of care.

    2. Re:Single Payer health care by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      Folks don't stop taking the meds so they can try and save them for the next time or for their kids. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have to worry about coming up with money every time they get sick.

      They stop using them because they feel better, you said it yourself.

      Lots of people do that, poor or otherwise. They shouldn't, but they do.

    3. Re:Single Payer health care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >>>>Folks don't stop taking the meds so they can try and save them for the next time or for their kids. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have to worry about coming up with money every time they get sick.

      >>They stop using them because they feel better, you said it yourself.

      >>Lots of people do that, poor or otherwise. They shouldn't, but they do.

      The people make the value judgement. (a)OK now I'm better, (b)let me save the rest of this.

      It's both a and b, but yes a has to come first.

  14. any day now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It took less than 100 years and we're going right back to where we were. Life will be short and brutish, and the women will be expected to be baby machines.

  15. superbug immigration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    supervetting is failing us! Make Vetting Great Again!

  16. Wake me when by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are bacteria-resistant nightmare drugs.

  17. Mostly Ho-Hum - HAIs have led the way. by BoRegardless · · Score: 2

    HAIs, hospital acquired infections, have been a highlight of attempts for almost 20 years to identify and stop the worst infections with highest resistance to antibiotics, like MRSA and C-Diff.

    The chances are that every time YOU, as an individual, take an antibiotic that you convert one or more bacteria in your gut to an antibiotic resistant type. That is not a real good choice for people who NEED to get rid of a bad bacteria.

    Now is the time to find a different avenue to get rid of specific harmful bacteria with new technologies that don't increase the number of antibiotic resistant forms.

    1. Re:Mostly Ho-Hum - HAIs have led the way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Another SJW. We need to stop illegals and legals from shithole countries from coming here.

  18. Hypocrites gonna hype by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then why do you keep voting republican/libertarian? I don't want to hear your bitching. You're part of the problem.

    1. Re:Hypocrites gonna hype by burtosis · · Score: 1

      Lol, I don't vote either libertarian or republican. Also I buy antibiotic free meat when I can. Gimme the inorganic, hormone stuffed, genetically modified cheapo meats, but the misuse of antibiotics really is disastrous and you can even find it for nearly the same price at major stores.

  19. Re: How is this a recurring problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No it isn't, because whilst there's bacteria... they cause disease. Not sure you realised that if _both_ evolve in an arms race fashion... the bacteria is still there causing disease. And that is assuming that phages engineered to be used in hospitals are allowed to reproduce (=evolve).

    What clinicians want, with phage or antibiotics, is to get rid of what causes disease, not to keep it there for kicks.

  20. MODDOWN! ; creimer youtube spam post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MODDOWN! ; creimer youtube spam post!

    CREIMER' SUBMISSIONS UPDATE:
    Note also that creimer is trying to regain karma by getting his submissions published as articles on /. so make sure to go to:
    https://slashdot.org/~__aaclcg...
    https://slashdot.org/~IDrinkFa...
    https://slashdot.org/~_sharp'r...
    https://slashdot.org/~crreimer
    https://slashdot.org/~cdreimer
    https://slashdot.org/~criss69
    https://slashdot.org/~Anonymou...
    https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
    https://slashdot.org/~ILoveFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IHateFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IAteFatC...
    https://slashdot.org/~ITapeFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IApeFatC...
    https://slashdot.org/~IPrayFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
    and mod down his submissions as well. The great thing is that you don't even need mod points to mod down a submission, just click on the "minus" icon!

    Yes, believe it or not, creimer owns all the above sock puppet accounts. It is a mystery why Slashdot management tolerates it!

    creimer wrote:

    I don't bother with mod points. I'm doing something much more sinister. It took ten story submissions ? I'll have to double check the number ? to move cdreimer's karma from neutral to excellent without ever being exposed to the capricious mods. Mmmmmwwwwahahahahahahaha!

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

    Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! Creimy is posting more than 2 posts a day. Hurry! mod down otherwise /. will go to hell again!

    Note: you can mod down even if already at -1 to lower karma and to prevent lost /. users to accidentally mod up.

    creimer wrote:

    All you need to do is find a website with a permissive TOS, say, Slashdot, create a Python script to scrape your own comments, sprinkle Amazon affiliate links in various posts, and then re-post past links whenever possible. Won't be long before you start making "coffee money" each month.

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

    C.D. Reimer is a renowned Slashdot collaborator, as he puts it himself; "Because of the quality of my posts and my article submissions, I'm a highly rated commentator and moderator."

    But does anybody ever wondered what "C.D." stands for? Well, it stands for Creimy Dumpty of course!

    Creimy Dumpty sat on the wall,
    Creimy Dumpty had a great fall.
    All the king's horses
    And all the king's men
    Couldn't put Creimy Dumpty
    Together again.

    Creimy's siblings video and theme song, very realistic, especially the pants, just like Creimy's:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    With "Vice President Pence Vowing US Astronauts Will Return To the Moon", we are sure they will need miracle workers up there, here is what it would look like. Note that Creimy takes care of bringing a lot of food to the moon as depicted below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Creimy's real pictures:
    Before the sex change:

  21. Thankyou China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Antibiotic resistant bacteria, another gift to the world from the Chinese. What did you expect if you prescribe antibiotics for every medical problem including a sprained ankle (not a joke).

  22. MODDOWN! ; creimer youtube spam post again! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    MODDOWN! ; creimer youtube spam post again!

    CREIMER' SUBMISSIONS UPDATE:
    Note also that creimer is trying to regain karma by getting his submissions published as articles on /. so make sure to go to:
    https://slashdot.org/~__aaclcg...
    https://slashdot.org/~IDrinkFa...
    https://slashdot.org/~_sharp'r...
    https://slashdot.org/~crreimer
    https://slashdot.org/~cdreimer
    https://slashdot.org/~criss69
    https://slashdot.org/~Anonymou...
    https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
    https://slashdot.org/~ILoveFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IHateFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IAteFatC...
    https://slashdot.org/~ITapeFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~IApeFatC...
    https://slashdot.org/~IPrayFat...
    https://slashdot.org/~FatCashe...
    and mod down his submissions as well. The great thing is that you don't even need mod points to mod down a submission, just click on the "minus" icon!

    Yes, believe it or not, creimer owns all the above sock puppet accounts. It is a mystery why Slashdot management tolerates it!

    creimer wrote:

    I don't bother with mod points. I'm doing something much more sinister. It took ten story submissions ? I'll have to double check the number ? to move cdreimer's karma from neutral to excellent without ever being exposed to the capricious mods. Mmmmmwwwwahahahahahahaha!

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

    Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! Creimy is posting more than 2 posts a day. Hurry! mod down otherwise /. will go to hell again!

    Note: you can mod down even if already at -1 to lower karma and to prevent lost /. users to accidentally mod up.

    creimer wrote:

    All you need to do is find a website with a permissive TOS, say, Slashdot, create a Python script to scrape your own comments, sprinkle Amazon affiliate links in various posts, and then re-post past links whenever possible. Won't be long before you start making "coffee money" each month.

    https://slashdot.org/comments....

    C.D. Reimer is a renowned Slashdot collaborator, as he puts it himself; "Because of the quality of my posts and my article submissions, I'm a highly rated commentator and moderator."

    But does anybody ever wondered what "C.D." stands for? Well, it stands for Creimy Dumpty of course!

    Creimy Dumpty sat on the wall,
    Creimy Dumpty had a great fall.
    All the king's horses
    And all the king's men
    Couldn't put Creimy Dumpty
    Together again.

    Creimy's siblings video and theme song, very realistic, especially the pants, just like Creimy's:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    With "Vice President Pence Vowing US Astronauts Will Return To the Moon", we are sure they will need miracle workers up there, here is what it would look like. Note that Creimy takes care of bringing a lot of food to the moon as depicted below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Creimy's real pictures:
    Before the sex change:

  23. Re:Moscow Donald is a bigger threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Treason isn't just illegal. It's wrong.

    "Illegal" is a bad word. You should say "undocumented".

  24. Nope by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    I've spoken with several of them (used to work in a call center) and they stopped using them to save money. I've had several people suggest this to me as a tactic when I got sick (I knew better and admonished them for it).

    When I was poor ever doc told me to finish my meds. When I got some money and started seeing docs in the better neighborhoods that stopped.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/