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If it sometimes seems like the idea of antibiotic resistance, though unsettling, is more theoretical than real, please read on.
Public health officials from Nevada are reporting on a case of a woman who died in Reno in September from an incurable infection. Testing showed the superbug that had spread throughout her system could fend off 26 different antibiotics.
"It was tested against everything that's available in the United States ... and was not effective," said Dr. Alexander Kallen, a medical officer in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of health care quality promotion. Although this isn't the first time someone in the US has been infected with pan-resistant bacteria, at this point, it is not common. It is, however, alarming.
[Journal Ref.]: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6601a7.htm
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 15 2017, @04:49AM
You do hit on a couple moderately serious problems. Maybe even very serious problems. But, I believe the real problem are our "Regional Medical Centers". We take sick people from all over a region, and warehouse them inside of a huge complex, where no fresh air or sunshine can reach. The bugs (germs, bacteria, viruses, whatever) are trapped inside of this huge building(s) from which they cannot escape. They are protected from sunshine, as are the patients. And, we just continue to send in more sick people, with all their various bugs.
The environment is hostile to the bugs, but if they survive for a little while, they can continue to grow and evolve, developing better and better resistance to the environment.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152786/infection%3A_how_hospitals_are_breeding_grounds_for_superbugs_you've_never_even_heard_of [alternet.org]
Disclaimer - that article claims that 30 thousand Americans die from this super bug every year - I'm not sure I believe that. But, the article does point up that hospitals are breeding grounds for bugs.
There are benefits to these huge hospitals, sure. The efficient use of staff time, proximity to almost every kind of specialist, consolidation of records, more consolidation of dispensing procedures. But, in old timey local hospitals that might have only ten beds, you weren't exposed to every illness across the entire region just by entering the building. Even larger hospitals, with a hundred beds, didn't bring sick people together from half the state.
And, fresh air and sunshine. Many disease causing organisms are killed by direct sunlight. The same sunlight that causes the body to produce vitamin D actually kills a lot of bugs. And, fresh air. The medical profession has always recognized the importance of clean fresh air in any healing process, until recently.
We are doing things wrong when we take every sick person within a hundred miles (or more in some cases) and pack them like sardines into one huge can. A person already weakened by one illness is open to infection from the dozens of other illnesses hosted by all the other people around him.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0303-superbugs.html [cdc.gov]
Tangentially - many of us have noticed that procedures that once required days or weeks of hospitalization are now performed on an outpatient basis. Why is that? Well - partly, the insurance companies have pushed for that, so they don't have to pay for hospitalization. And, partly, the procedures have been improved in a lot of cases. But, partly, the medical community seems to recognize that the less time a patient spends in the hospital, the less likely he is to contract or to spread his illnesses to/from other patients.
Back to your post - there is plenty of blame to spread around, but the biggest part of the blame goes to our medical community. While striving to consolidate assets under one roof, and to save money, they are building the incubators for the super bugs. Keep that in mind the next time you visit one of those huge medical facilities.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 15 2017, @06:47AM
One quibble; it's not "the medical community," it's the bean-counters. You're correct about sunlight (the UV wavelengths) being a good disinfectant of course, as well as everything about keeping lots of differently-sick people together. Hospitals should exploit the oligodynamic effect more and use bleach for cleaning too.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @12:28PM
In addition to light, air and cleaning they should also think about drinking clean water. Where's my Insightful mod?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @03:39PM
Perhaps we should consider bacteriophages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTwEVK7TMWI [youtube.com]
A bunch of media propaganda has helped deter the U.S. from using them at one time but maybe they should make a comeback.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday January 15 2017, @07:34PM
Bacteriophages can be effective, but they can also cause problems. Microbes mutate...and they aren't necessarily finicky about just what they eat. You may be delicious.
That said, when antibiotics don't work, they're a lot better than nothing. But you need to get the ones that eat just what you've got, don't immediately eat you, and aren't immediately eaten by your immune system. Sometimes this is easy (with proper diagnosis), and sometimes it isn't.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 16 2017, @12:42AM
This had occurred to me, but, not being an expert in virology, it's giving me T-virus flashbacks. Seriously, how do you stop your phage cohort from mutating into something potentially even worse? Even sticking in some sort of terminator gene isn't a guarantee, since it could mutate or otherwise excise that gene out...or, worse, pass it into YOUR DNA if it's a retrovirus.
Sometimes I think that what will do the human race in is a biotech experiment gone wrong.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...