A 'slow catastrophe' unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end

[NeoGreen]

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-antibiotic-resistance-20160711-snap-story.html

A 'slow catastrophe' unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end

In early April, experts at a military lab outside Washington intensified their search for evidence that a dangerous new biological threat had penetrated the nation’s borders.

They didn’t have to hunt long before they found it.

On May 18, a team working at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research here had its first look at a sample of the bacterium Escherichia coli, taken from a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania. She had a urinary tract infection with a disconcerting knack for surviving the assaults of antibiotic medications. Her sample was one of six from across the country delivered to the lab of microbiologist Patrick McGann.

Within hours, a preliminary analysis deepened concern at the lab. Over the next several days, more sophisticated genetic sleuthing confirmed McGann’s worst fears.

There, in the bacterium’s DNA, was a gene dubbed mcr-1. Its presence made the pathogen impervious to the venerable antibiotic colistin.

[Warpy]

1. Scary as hell

Hospitals will all have to have strong ultraviolet lights used to clean most of their rooms now. We might all be carrying that particular bug, we just won't know unless it escapes our colon and goes somewhere we don't want it.

And no, we can't use that type of light to kill the bug in living tissue. It would also kill the tissue.

[jtuck004]

2. And here is #2, if the testing holds up

https://www.yahoo.com/news/researchers-second-superbug-gene-u-patient-170148099--finance.html

[bananas]

3. Why antibiotic use on farms helps fuel antibiotic-resistant diseases

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-antibiotic-resistance-livestock-20160711-snap-story.html

Why antibiotic use on farms helps fuel antibiotic-resistant diseases
By Melissa Healy
July 11, 2016

Farm animals are a key player in the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Around the world, livestock producers feed antibiotics to cattle, pigs, chickens and other animals in a bid to prevent diseases and boost their growth. In the United States, for instance, some 30 million pounds of antibiotics are used on the farm. That’s 70% of all the antibiotics used in the U.S. each year, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Experts believe this practice has hastened the emergence of antibiotic-resistant diseases.

When more livestock are fed antibiotics, they provide more bodies in which evolutionary pressures play themselves out. The drugs may kill the bulk of dangerous pathogens, but the survivors are able to multiply and spread.

<snip>

It’s likely no accident, scientists say, that the first discovery of bacteria carrying the colistin-resistant mcr-1 gene occurred in China. Colistin is not generally used on American farms, but China is one the world’s largest producers of colistin, and its farmers are among the world’s heaviest users of the antibiotic.