Our Most Potent Antibiotics No Longer Work
An agar plate with bacteria spread over the surface. The little discs contain antibiotics (like ceftazidime 'CAZ' and cefoxitin 'FOX'). This shows how the bacteria grows straight over the top. The number refers to the concentration of antibiotic in the disc. Photo by Dr. Patrick Harris
The road to this discovery started in 2011. The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology funded a group of researchers to test meat samples around the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Much of the country's meat is produced here in high-intensity factory farms, where farmers stave off infection by feeding the animals human-grade antibiotics. This might insure investments for farmers, but it also encourages bacteria to develop ways of coping with our best antibiotics.
That's not to say China is to blame. Antibiotics have been used in animal agriculture everywhere for a long time and especially in the US. It's just that we're paying for it now.
To unpack this complex issue we spoke to Dr. Patrick Harris. He's an infectious disease physician and microbiologist with the University of Queensland, and he co-wrote a paper on what it means to have our last antibiotic curtailed—both now, and very soon.
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http://www.vice.com/read/a-gloomy-conversation-on-how-our-most-potent-antibiotics-no-longer-work
= new reply since forum marked as read
but it's like everything, nobody wants to be the person who does without something so they forget about it and assume someone else will come up with a solution. I did read somewhere that mankind will die out because of this kind of thing.
I feel I need to add a smiley to my portent of doom 
...how every mathematical population model that the eponymous 'They' tested shows a massive population crash between 9 and 11 billion, every time, without fail, even when they change the outlying experiment parameters. And it's always something freak, a plague here, a disease there, a resource depletes over there. Little things end up killing it all, mathematically.
Yay future! 
Welcome to DU.
My dear friend WCGreen died because there were no antibiotics that would work against his pneumonia.
I sent him four get well cards during that time. You were a true friend Peggy
That was very kind of you! I know he appreciated them.
We were very good friends to each other.......I miss him.
Chris....
Edited to add my sister is a multi year survivor of a kidney/liver transplant so I was so attuned to
Chris' struggle during those years. Your Constant support of Chris online here on DU and in RL has been a beacon of love for me.
