US warns over deadly, hard-to-treat bacteria

[FarCenter]

A deadly strain of hard-to-treat bacteria is spreading in US health facilities, posing a particular risk to the nation's most vulnerable patients, authorities said in a report on Tuesday.

Health officials said the bacteria has proved stubbornly resistant to treatment with antibiotics, making some infections impossible to cure.

Up to half of all patients who get blood stream infections from the bacteria die, health officials said.

The report about the lethal bacteria -- carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) -- was issued by Vital Signs, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"CRE are nightmare bacteria. Our strongest antibiotics don't work, and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections," said CDC Director Tom Frieden.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130305-us-warns-over-deadly-hard-treat-bacteria

[TeeYiYi]

1. Link to an OP in LBN from about a week ago...

...with lots of good info. http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014409526

TYY

[FarCenter]

7. Thanks for the link -- interesting comments on agriculture, etc.

Note that a lot of vegetables are coming from countries where antibiotics are sold over the counter.

[bemildred]

2. Sort of like they are adapting to a new environment.

Gee, who could have predicted this?

[siligut]

3. Yes, pestilence is going to be our end

They adapt so much faster than we can.

[bemildred]

6. Nah, we can evolve too. nt

[KT2000]

13. bacteria take generations

to evolve - for some, a generation is 20 minutes. We cannot compete with that.

The man who discovered penicillin saw resistance develop in many bacteria in the first year -- 1929. He warned then this would happen. By 1995, 95% of staph was resistant to penicillin.
Doctors turned to methycillin for staph and saw resistance devlop within a year. This is what we call MRSA.

[bemildred]

14. Right, but they won't been able to kill all of us any more than we can kill all of them.

And it's not really in their interest to do that. Parasites that kill off their host organisms don't do well evolution-wise. Diseases like ebola don't do well, because they kill the hosts too fast, and debilitate them immediately. Long acting diseases like HIV do much better, but they will never wipe us out. And that is the issue if you are claiming they will wipe us out.

[KT2000]

17. They will wipe out people

who develop infections that can no longer be treated successfully. That will include such infections as urinary tract, infected wounds, septicemia etc. - those things we now consider easily treatable.
We are approaching the end of the antibiotic age and will live with those consequences.

For example, there is now a drug resustant urinary tract infection. If not brought under control by other means, it leads to kidney failure, which leads to dialysis, which leads to kidney transplant- or death.
As in the time prior to antibiotics, some will live and some will die.

Sad, because it could have been managed better to preserve their effectiveness.

[liberal_at_heart]

18. Bacteria and viruses mutate. This is nothing new.

We have always been chasing mutating bacteria and viruses. They mutate. We make different medicines.

[KT2000]

19. we are nearing the end

of successful medicines with just a few in the pipeline. Having lived billions of years before humans, bacteria are adept at forming resistance. There are many methods employed to disable antibiotics.
The few new drugs are just slightly altered existing antibiotics and none are for Gram-negative bacteria which is harder to treat. Even in the face of this problem, research into antibiotics has fallen. They are even resorting to old antibiotics that were not used plentifully due to the damaging side effects, such as kidney failure.
That is the problem.

Antibiotics were treated as just another tool in the free market but their overuse in factory farms (used to fatten livestack as well as treat infections) and less so in humans, is starting to render them useless.

[liberal_at_heart]

23. sorry if I don't buy into the doom and gloom

[KT2000]

26. that is your choice

But it is common knowledge among researchers and organizations such as the CDC that this is upon us.
When you know someone or hear about someone who has died in the hospital after an operation and it is said "complications from surgery" it is likely an antibiotic resistant bacteria.
The latest development is the movement from hospital acquired infections to community acquired infections.
It will likely affect, if not you, then people you know.

It would be nice if more people became involved in requiring factory farms eliminate their dependence upon antibiotics used to fatten livestock.

Do read up on it, please.

[liberal_at_heart]

32. antibiotics are not just used to fatten livestock. It is used to keep diseases from spreading

through livestock. If you put thousands of animals together, there will be disease. If they are not properly vaccinated then they all get the disease and all have to be destroyed. I'm sure researchers do keep track of when bacteria and viruses mutate. They also work very diligently to come up with alternatives. Wasn't MERSA suppose to kill millions? Well, it hasn't. I wouldn't be surprised if they already have a medicine for MERSA, and if they don't they will find one soon.

[KT2000]

41. Absolutely - the conditions

under which animals are raised actually spread disease so the antibiotics are used for that too. It stays in their excrement, which gets into the groundwater, which travels to the waterbodies and our water supply.

MRSA IS killing people - generally one at a time. I know a few people who succumbed to this.
You can no longer go into a hospital for surgery without concern for developing a MRSA infection, plus there are many more untreatable infections. That is a real consideration when deciding on an elective surgery.

There is now a drug resistant form of TB. This may influence what gatherings you attend. There is a drug resistant form of gonorrhea. This should influence people's decisions about who they are intimate with. There is a drug resistant form of urinary tract infection that could cause kidney failure etc.

The alternatives are already in place - practice good hygeine and develop a stong immune system.

The age of antibiotics is just a milisecond in the life of bacteria that existed billions of years before humans and long after humans exist.
I think you will find it an interesting topic of you read up on it.

[bemildred]

39. Are you not aware that antibiotics are a quite recent invention?

And that, nevertheless, the human line has been surviving and prospering these millions of years now? If we were not wiped out before, then why now? A good pruning, maybe, but wiped out? No way. You want to worry about getting wiped out, worry about wayward asteroids.

[liberal_at_heart]

42. We've been around for millions of years

Bacteria and viruses haven't done us in yet. The Plague tried and did kill a lot of people, but we as a species made it and now have more people on the Earth than ever.

[bemildred]

43. Exactly. There are billions of us, we cover the planet. It's ridiculous. nt

[liberal_at_heart]

44. Just making the point that we are a resiliant species

We have been dealing with bacteria and viruses for millions of years.

[bemildred]

45. Yes, the greatest living predator, we eat everything.

And scientifically sophisticated to boot. The problem is we are running breeding factories for resistant bacteria (feedlots and hospitals) in the name of profit.

[KT2000]

49. Bacteria existed before humans

by BILLIONS of years. We, and our antibiotics are a mere annoyance.

I do think you will care if someone you love is dying from what was a once easily treatable infection - a seemingly innocuous wound, a urinary infection, a post surgical infection. It is not a pretty sight.

[KT2000]

46. There was a complete sentence

that said those with untreatable infections would be wiped out - meaning those that are infected. People with strong immune systems will fight them off but those who cannot will succumb to the infection, It happens every day in hospitals.

No, humans will not all of a sudden be wiped out but we are facing a world that existed before antibiotics were introduced in 1929. What we have come to consider minor infections could be very serious or even fatal as they were before - more dying in childhood, from wounds and childbirth where there were complications etc.

I am afraid the discussion has taken a silly turn, asteroids? It is incumbent upon all of us to learn about this as we make decisions daily that could contribute to the growth of antibiotic resistance in ourselves and loved ones. Food choices - are the meats and chickens we purchase loaded with antibiotics? Are we taking antibiotics unnecessarily? Are we using antibacterial hand cleaners that contribute to this problem?

We are facing an inevitable but we can slow it down.

[bemildred]

47. OK, I can go along with that.

You are quite right that there will be a lot of prematurely dead people.

Asteroids are a REAL threat to wipe us out. If you think that is silly, YOU need to wise up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

[liberal_at_heart]

48. I don't use antibiotics when I have a viral infection.

But I am not against farmers using anti-biotics and I am confident that the researchers are doing everything they can to keep up with the mutations. H1N1 took everybody by surprise and they have vaccines for that now. Will some of us die? Of course we will. Thousands die from influenza every year. And it is very sad especially if someone you know dies from it. But I do not think MRSA or H1N1 or CRE will doom our species.

[MineralMan]

4. But...evolution doesn't exist.

So that's impossible.

[lapislzi]

11. But, but, but!

Evolution is only a THEORY! (just like gravity)

[KT2000]

5. the sad thing is

that it is the nature of bacteria to form resistance to antibiotics they encounter repeatedly. They then share that knowledge with other bacteria.
The highest use of antibiotics is in factory farming and that is accelerating bacterial resistance. We are eating those resistant bacteria and they are getting into our groundwater and waterways so we consume them in our water and other food sources.

There are efforts to limit the over-use of antibiotics in humans but apparently no one had the courage to insist that corporate factory farms stop their murderous practices.

[Gregorian]

12. Interesting. And once again population enters the picture.

As in almost every place we see problems, it's related to how many people are demanding. We didn't need factory farms until reaching a limit. That was somewhere around the 1930's. We could try farming in other ways, but the demand is so great that other problems would present themselves.

There is no way around it, we either start addressing population, or our troubles are going to be too big to handle.

[KT2000]

15. Population or dietary choices?

The fast food industry is based on the ability to obtain incredibly cheap beef and chickens. If there was no fast food industry. that depends upon factory farms, I wonder what impact that would have.

I am all for population control though. Our planet can only support so many people and if it depends upon suicidal farming practices to support - we are in trouble.

[JanMichael]

16. Even sadder? DUers constantly make fun of the

organic/ vegetarian/ vegan crowd.

I want to make this post as clear as possible: I am referring to ALL diets-- Mention you only eat meat that is wild, or lived in your friends backyard, etc?

50 DUers will pile on screaming about how much they love their bacon.

[Blanks]

20. I haven't seen DUers make fun of...

Organic/vegan/vegetarian crowd. I like bacon too, but saying that you like a certain food is hardly making fun of someone.

I will say that I think it's kind of weird for someone to only eat the meat from their neighbors back yard.

The neighbor is probably taken aback a bit by that too.

[JanMichael]

21. no way to have a progressive conversation on food

is there.

I think others knew what I meant; sorry you have missed all the "food wars" prevalent on this website.

[Blanks]

24. I haven't been around that long.

It's a big issue; so of course there's going to be disagreement.

It isn't that 'the vegan lifestyle' is crazy, but it takes a lot of commitment. It isn't for everyone and there is a huge distribution system in place for growing, slaughtering, packaging and preparing beef and swine. If it were easier to eat healthy and more environmentally friendly; more people would do it.

I raise chickens for eggs and meat, more for practice than for any practical reason. I expect one day the knowledge will serve me well, but anytime I go from point A to point B; I can stop and get a bacon cheeseburger without even getting out of my vehicle. At a reasonable cost.

When people are busy; that's what they settle for. It's going to be a challenge to turn it around.

[JanMichael]

30. So far, every single person that

has responded to my comment only saw ONE word: "Vegan."

Re-read it.

I was in no way condoning a vegan lifestyle.

[Blanks]

34. It's just that a vegan lifestyle requires the most commitment.

I was struck by the 'friends back yard' comment. It just seemed odd that you would eat the meat out of a friends back yard - rather than say that it was in your own back yard that struck me as kind of odd.

I'm not trying to upset you.

[JanMichael]

37. Semantics. I shouldn't have written it that way. Perhaps

You will understand this:

Eating meat from close by farms (IE: Your neighbors) where you know the animals are raised and killed humanely, and not in close quarters that encourage the proliferation of bacteria that is mentioned in the article this OP is referring to.

[GiveMeFreedom]

50. Subsistence living?

That show on the people that lived in Alaska "Alaska: The Last Frontier" Starring the family of a famous singer "Jewel Kilcher". I could not get enough of that show. Sure it's dramatized, but I wish I had grown up like that. A lot of FREEDOM!! and RESPONSIBILITY!! to take care of, if they don't, they starve.


From: http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-30505

introduces viewers to the Kilcher family and their isolated community outside Homer, Alaska. The Kilchers, lead by patriarch Atz Kilcher, have cultivated and lived on their homestead for generations. These men and women of the wild live off the land, spending the limited months of summer and fall gardening, hunting and fishing for food, gathering supplies from the land and preparing their animals' safety in preparation for surviving the harsh Alaskan winters. Most live completely off the grid, with no running water and no electricity - and are proud of it. (Source: The Discovery Channel)

[KT2000]

22. Yes - there are issues,

espcially those having to do with public health that don't do well here.

[liberal_at_heart]

25. if you want to be vegan, be vegan. I won't tell you to do otherwise.

Just as I would appreciate if vegans would leave me alone and let me eat my meat and junk food. You talk about the food wars. You mention you eat junk food and meat and you get lectured and converted. But that's okay. You eat what you want to eat and I will eat what I want to eat.

[JanMichael]

27. Please read what I wrote

before you respond. Thanks.

[liberal_at_heart]

28. see you are the one responding in attack mode.

I said nothing offensive in my post and yet you have to make a snarky remark. It looks like I'm not the only one you made a snarky remark to either. Just leave people be. Let them eat what they want to eat. I extend that courtesy to vegans. Why can't they extend that courtesy to me?

[JanMichael]

31. "attack mode?"

you haven't addressed what I wrote. At all. It's as if you saw ONE word and honed in on it.

We are NOT vegans in our household. Perhaps you might want to seriously try again.

[RebelOne]

29. I am a vegetarian, but do not preach to anyone about their dietary choice.

All I know is that I am 74 years old and have outlived many of my meat-eating friends and relatives. And I hope to be around until I am at least 84 years old.

[liberal_at_heart]

35. congratulations on living such a long life

I know many meat eaters that have lived into their 70's and 80's. Some people live a healthy lifestyle and die in their 50's. What you eat is all a matter of personal preference. I don't begrudge vegans or vegetarians or organics their lifestyles. I just wish they wouldn't judge my lifestyle. I'm glad you don't preach to others. Thank you.

[Blanks]

36. Have you seen the documentary 'Forks over Knives'?

That's enough to make anyone seriously evaluate a diet of exclusively fruits, vegetables and grains.

[JanMichael]

38. Congratulations! I wasn't

preaching.

Now, that we are congratulating you on your longevity, can you find ANYWHERE that I have suggested people be vegetarians/ vegan?

That's right! No where! I DO suggest that local farm raised meat is a better option.

[liberal_at_heart]

40. wow. You are hostile. You are going on ignore.

[Earth_First]

8. Sequestration will help! n/t

[annabanana]

9. Is our salvation to be found in genetic engineering?

Can the bacteria be neutered biologically?

[Recursion]

10. They're called "Republicans"

No matter what we try, they never seem to go away.

[undeterred]

33. I heard this has been identified at 200 hospitals.

So, stay away from the hospital.

[WinkyDink]

52. Frankly, that isn't bad advice.

[Turbineguy]

51. Look at it from Wayne Lapierre's position

lots of people die, which is good, but their deaths can't be blamed on him.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

53. Bacteria doesn't kill people.

People with bacteria kill people.