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