‘Almost too late’ to halt spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria found in pigs

[satanboy]

It is “almost too late” to stop an antibiotic resistant bacteria gene found in pigs and humans creating a global superbug crisis, scientists warn.
Experts from Antibiotic Research UK now say there is only a fifty-fifty chance of salvaging the world’s antibiotics and keeping them usable against resistant diseases.

The warning comes after scientists found a gene, which makes bacteria resistant to the last gasp antibiotic defense known as colistin.

Resistance to colistin is thought to be the final step toward effectively untreatable diseases.

Dr David Brown, director at Antibiotic Research UK, told the Guardian: “It is almost too late. We needed to start research 10 years ago and we still have no global monitoring system in place.”

Brown said efforts to find new drugs are “totally failing” and that “there has been no new chemical class of drug to treat gram-negative infections for more than 40 years.”

“I think we have got a 50-50 chance of salvaging the most important antibiotics, but we need to stop agriculture from ruining it again.”

Resistance is thought to have developed because of the mass application of drugs in agriculture, with China being a hotspot for such overuse.

Unnecessary use of drugs is thought to be the problem, allowing bacteria to adapt. In China, for example, drugs are used to increase the size of animals, a practice that has been banned in the EU since 2006.

rt.com

 

[Xarog]

That's what you get for throwing antibiotics into factory food lots to kill off gut bacteria so as to make the animals fatter for bigger profits you stupid ****s.

 

[Techne]

Good news for drug development people...

 

[AlphaJohn]

Erm almost? wtf you mean by almost. Its done, and spreading.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...s/news-story/f643ea45c989c63365c0e50ea4a5f3e0

 

[maumau]

BBC had a programme on this saying drug companies can't afford to spend decades developing new antibiotics because the patent runs out after 10 years. When it runs out generics flood the market and their profits drop.

They're expected to spend years developing something new, only to have the cycle repeated.

Apparently in India antibiotics are on sale over the counter in small shops. You can buy 2 or 3 or 20 tablets as you like.

 

[AlphaJohn]

BBC had a programme on this saying drug companies can't afford to spend decades developing new antibiotics because the patent runs out after 10 years. When it runs out generics flood the market and their profits drop.

They're expected to spend years developing something new, only to have the cycle repeated.

Apparently in India antibiotics are on sale over the counter in small shops. You can buy 2 or 3 or 20 tablets as you like.

I suspect the program was aimed at India's anti patent Program, and here I am sorry but my vote goes to India as most drug companies just change 1 component or atom and re-patent the drug. This does not fly as new research in my eyes. India does however recognise New drugs and do follow patent law on them.

As for buying Antibiotics over the counter, we can do the same in SA and other countries, That is like saying people buy head ache tablets over the counter. What they don't do is sell stronger ones over the counter. PS did you know garlic is classed as a antibiotic?

Edit: the real problem is not people taking antibiotics as they do this only when they sick, but farmers feeding heavy/prescription only antibiotics to livestock by the tons regardless if anything is wrong with them.

 

[maumau]

Garlic has antibiotic properties, so does honey but are they classed as antibiotics? I don't think so. You should not be able to buy antibiotics without a prescription in SA.

Agreed the problem is to do with farming methods but people should not take them only when they're sick. The idea is to start a COURSE when they're sick and FINISH THE COURSE. Patient ignorance is where a huge problem comes in .

P.S. not specifically criticising India, that's just a part I remember.

 

[Techne]

Garlic has antibiotic properties, so does honey but are they classed as antibiotics? I don't think so. You should not be able to buy antibiotics without a prescription in SA.

Agreed the problem is to do with farming methods but people should not take them only when they're sick. The idea is to start a COURSE when they're sick and FINISH THE COURSE. Patient ignorance is where a huge problem comes in .

P.S. not specifically criticising India, that's just a part I remember.

Actually, evolution is the problem. New genes for resistance evolve. Patient ignorance and farming will just speed it up.

Drug resistance and drug designers will exist for as long as evolution and humans exist .

 

[ShaunSA]

So we can expect bacon eaters to start keeling over in?

 

[AlphaJohn]

So we can expect bacon eaters to start keeling over in?

If only it was that simple.... guess you missed the part that its out(Found in humans), and can "teach" other bacteria its "trait"

 

[maumau]

Here's the Panorama program "Antibiotic Apocalypse". Watch on iPlayer.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wgq4g

 

[ShaunSA]

If only it was that simple.... guess you missed the part that its out(Found in humans), and can "teach" other bacteria its "trait"

I have no idea what you just said.

 

[Xarog]

I have no idea what you just said.

Pig killing bacteria mix with human killing bacteria, they have a nice little interaction and then the human killing bacteria come out the other side with a nice and shiny new immunity to an antibiotic.

So now this bacteria is out in the wild chatting it up with all the other bacteria and it's only a matter of time before human killing bacteria with the immunity infects someone and ushers in the day where once again humans live in terror of a contagious bacterial infection that no one can do anything about.

 

[maumau]

Very frightening.

My BIL went into hospital in June for a tendon op and got a bone infection. The doctors said it was streptococcus but it spread too fast for them to save his leg and he had a below the knee amputation. He was in and out of hospital so there's no knowing where he picked up the bacteria.

Since then it seems that everybody we speak to knows somebody who's been operated on and got an infection

 

[ShaunSA]

Pig killing bacteria mix with human killing bacteria, they have a nice little interaction and then the human killing bacteria come out the other side with a nice and shiny new immunity to an antibiotic.

So now this bacteria is out in the wild chatting it up with all the other bacteria and it's only a matter of time before human killing bacteria with the immunity infects someone and ushers in the day where once again humans live in terror of a contagious bacterial infection that no one can do anything about.

I think you read my post wrong. I am actually hoping people start keeling over :erm:

 

[saor]

As for buying Antibiotics over the counter, we can do the same in SA and other countries, That is like saying people buy head ache tablets over the counter. What they don't do is sell stronger ones over the counter. PS did you know garlic is classed as a antibiotic?

Yeah, but a clove of garlic isn't as indiscriminate & powerful in it's action as a broad-spectrum antibiotic that's designed specifically to (non-discriminately) kill off all bacteria. If you want to look at the problem solely in terms of antibiotic resistant diseases, fine, but there are other health issues at stake here when people routinely wipe out the bactieria in their digestive tract with antibiotics. And antibiotics seem to have become an over-prescribed panacea.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Very frightening.

My BIL went into hospital in June for a tendon op and got a bone infection. The doctors said it was streptococcus but it spread too fast for them to save his leg and he had a below the knee amputation. He was in and out of hospital so there's no knowing where he picked up the bacteria.

Since then it seems that everybody we speak to knows somebody who's been operated on and got an infection

Strep is seriously crazy when it infects something other than your throat.
It can kill you in a very short time if they dont amputate to stop the spread.