Infection Raises Specter of Superbugs Resistant to All Antibiotics

[Dmactds]

nytimes.com/2016/05/27/heal...

​(..Meant for info only; not to freak anyone out...; click the link, read the article...)​

“...We risk being in a post-antibiotic world,” Dr. Frieden said during a gathering for journalists in Washington on Thursday. “That wouldn’t just be urinary tract infections or pneumonia — that could be for the 600,000 patients a year who need cancer treatment.”

He added: “The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients.”

The colistin resistance in the United States came to light when a 49-year-old woman, who Dr. Bell said was “connected to the military,” was treated for a urinary infection at a military clinic in Pennsylvania. Because her urine culture had unusual results, the sample was sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which identified the drug resistance. The bacteria, though resistant to colistin and some other antibiotics, were not resistant to carbapenems. Doctors there published a report on the case in a medical journal....

The CRE germs usually strike people receiving medical care in hospitals or nursing homes, including patients on breathing machines or dependent on catheters. Healthy people are rarely, if ever, affected. But the bugs attack broadly, and the infections they cause are not limited to people with severely compromised immune systems. CRE was believed to be the cause of infections from improperly cleaned medical scopes that led to the death of two people at Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center in California last year..."

[y_not]

Maybe my head is in the sand but I see an opportunity for the drug companies to develop a completely different approach to managing bacterial effects and at a new price and I'm sure that is how they will be viewing MRSA etc.

The staphylococcal bacterial is not "unkillable" it's simply become resistant to the current raft of antibiotics - in a world where we have developed so many ways of killing each other I assume that the chemists will find a new way to kill the bugs!

I don't suggest that we treat AB's like Smarties but neither do I think we need to panic about something we cannot impact either - if I have an exacerbation I'll take the emergency meds and won't think twice about the bugs ability/inability to survive.

[tamariki]

The full commentary rightly stated that the use of antibiotics given to pigs and cows is the root cause of the gradual build up of resistance. Since the methane gas given off by cattle is partly responsible for global warming, perhaps it would be better if we all went vegetarian. (We could still have fish n chips).

[Dmactds in reply to tamariki]

Haven't had really good fish and chips since my time in San Francisco many years ago..., they were fantastic !!! I have, over the last several years and without any real effort at all, begun eating less and less dead cow's meat but still chomp on dead pigs quite a bit.

I guess I'll give up on ever having good FandC's again..., oh woe is me...

[GrennCl0ud]

That's why I hate being on nature. There are too many bugs around. Esp, I hate mosquitoes. I try to protect myself but I avoid spray (too toxic). I read on getridpests.com/ about lemon and clove. It's the only efficient natural remedy that I use.