Maybe you global warming deniers are right. Maybe we'll die off from other causes before climate change gets us.
I assume everybody has heard about the headline worries.
I assume everybody has heard about the headline worries.
Welcome to a Post-Antibiotic World
- Thread starter What Would Jesus Do?
- Start date
I was hoping to die of an infection before the post antibiotic world started. Paper cuts are about to go up the list on causes of death.
No, I haven't heard the "end of civilization" theory of the day. Got a link?
Seriously, I drove for 6 hours today listening to NPR and it was all about Syria and refugees. Nothing about the end of antibiotics.
Seriously, I drove for 6 hours today listening to NPR and it was all about Syria and refugees. Nothing about the end of antibiotics.
I read about it. It's very scary. Antibiotics revolutionized medicine and if we lose the ability to fight them, it's a game changer.
For those who think truth depends on a link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34857015
The world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed.
They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort - colistin - in patients and livestock in China.
They said that resistance would spread around the world and raised the spectre of untreatable infections.
It is likely resistance emerged after colistin was overused in farm animals.
Bacteria becoming completely resistant to treatment - also known as the antibiotic apocalypse - could plunge medicine back into the dark ages.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34857015
The world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed.
They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort - colistin - in patients and livestock in China.
They said that resistance would spread around the world and raised the spectre of untreatable infections.
It is likely resistance emerged after colistin was overused in farm animals.
Bacteria becoming completely resistant to treatment - also known as the antibiotic apocalypse - could plunge medicine back into the dark ages.
Earlier this year there was an article about new antibiotics on the horizon that were based on soil bacteria and that didn't appear to have bacterial resistance. Hopefully those are developed and ready for medical use in time.
Which will then be patented and cost $10K per injection.
In another article I saw, they said they were working on some promising new antibiotics that might be available in a few years. Let's hope the plague doesn't move too fast.
We've certainly gone downhill since Salk and Sabin [not Nick]. [For those that don't know, in the 1950s these two discovered a cure for polio and declined patent protections [i.e.$$$$$$$] - they gave it to the world as a gift]
It's like climate change. We KNOW what we should be doing to reverse or ameliorate the threats. We simply choose not to do those things.
We all know about the over-prescription of antibiotics to humans. But that may be the least of our worries.
In the case of these disease-resistant bugs, we've known for many years that the serious over-use of antibiotics on livestock was creating resistant strains. And yet it's still true that something like 75% of all antibiotics are used this way. A few food companies are moving away from suppliers that use antibiotics. Good idea, but we need more than tokenism.
This mutational pressure is exacerbated by the tendency of developing nations to want more animal protein as their economies improve. So we have increasing numbers of laboratories (farms) around the world with increasing numbers of test subjects (livestock) in which new strains can mutate and be incubated.
And then, of course, we have the problem that there's very little effort to prevent the spread of disease agents around the world through travel and trade.
Is there any good news? The TPP will probably make this worse. If, say, the US passes laws that interfere with the free movement of possibly tainted goods, those laws will probably be struck down as being in restraint of free trade. So let's hurry up and pass the TPP. Let one of the surviving species have a shot at evolving intelligence and running the show. If we are too stupid to save ourselves, we probably deserve our fate.
That's the good news.
Nature needs a good cleanse... As George Carlin said... "The Planet's not going anywhere....We Are! Pack your sh!t folks..."
The Dark Ages is certainly hyperbole but early 20th century won't be far off the mark.
If you are talking about untreatable diseases spreading at the speed of airplanes across open borders, this could make the Dark ages look tame and safe by comparison.
You mean like the 1918 flu pandemic? That killed something like 50 million worldwide? And wouldn't have been affected by antibiotics, anyway?
There is new research on sulfa drugs - which were the mainstay prior to antibiotics...and there are several other promising paths being investigated. It's unlikely there's anything out there that would have the immediate impact of antibiotics, however.
We won't be bleeding anyone anytime soon...but it's interesting to note that bloodletting was still in vogue in early 20th century America. You can find it as a recommended practice in a 1923 medical book called The Principles and Practice of Medicine.
A GREAT read on how medicine changed in the early 20th is The Great Influenza.
The Earth needs to be cleansed. Maybe 3 billion deaths is a way for evolution to get us back on track?
