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The End of Antibiotics

posted by cmn32480 on Friday November 20 2015, @02:56AM   
from the ruh-roh dept.

isostatic writes:

The BBC reports that the world is on the cusp of a 'post-antibiotic era'. A new mutation of bacteria in China has something "dubbed the MCR-1 gene", that prevented colistin - the antibiotic of last resort - from killing bacteria.

Chinese scientists identified a new mutation, dubbed the MCR-1 gene, that prevented colistin from killing bacteria.

The report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases showed resistance in a fifth of animals tested, 15% of raw meat samples and in 16 patients.

[...] Resistance to colistin has emerged before. However, the crucial difference this time is the mutation has arisen in a way that is very easily shared between bacteria.

There's plenty to blame - pumping livestock full of them for "preventative measures", doctors prescribing them for colds and flus, and people not finishing a course when they are prescribed them - but the future currently looks bleak.

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Original Submission

• Re:biological warfare (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @03:22PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @03:22PM (#265839)

  ebola

  I live in Africa, you guys don't know shit about Ebola. It happens here every few years. It never goes anywhere. That is the pattern of the disease. When there isn't a drug company trying to scare up customers for a vaccine, you guys don't even hear about it.

  Parent

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