Solution to killer superbug found in Norway

[bik0]

The more drugs are prescribed, the more these nasty bugs evolve. It's like the old saying, "what doesn't kill you will make you stronger" is true for microbes as well...

OSLO, Norway – Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway's model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_he_me/when_drugs_stop_working_norway_s_answer;_ylt=Ane.gO4f.Hxs5rzXDjgDuYWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTRidGI4Mm1vBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjMxL3doZW5fZHJ1Z3Nfc3RvcF93b3JraW5nX25vcndheV9zX2Fuc3dlcgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzkEcG9zAzYEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNzb2x1dGlvbnRva2k-

[Warpy]

1. Most people under 40 have crap immune systems

because they were kids when pediatricians started giving out Amoxacillin like candy for every sniffle or ear infection, even when they knew those drugs wouldn't do anything except maybe prevent a secondary infection.

Parents are still clamoring for those drugs now, although the guidelines have changed to "only after 5 days and the viral infection has subsided."

The kids would have been better served all along if they'd have gotten pain medicine for painful ear infections instead of antibiotics that did no good and probably did them some harm.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I'm not so sure about that Warpy.

To this day there are differences between sounds that I can't hear. I suspect the problem had to do with a lot of ear infections as a child. Some things just sound muffled, and it's not getting better with age. My mom wasn't much of a believer in drugs, and I can't say that the side effects from some of those childhood illnesses enhanced my life.

[Warpy]

10. Damage can occur from bacterial superinfection

but rarely from the original virus. Most kids get over the virus without any problems. Superinfections are actually rare, which is why the guidelines have changed.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Weren't anti-biotics targeted for bacterial infections?

Virus are only being successfully controlled today with blockers.

[Berry Cool]

12. Well, I am over 40 and used to have a great immune system, but it's crap now.

I am on my second round of a third antibiotic because I haven't been able to kick out a bacterial infection that used to take me maybe one round of amoxicillin to dump (and I'd start feeling better within a few hours of starting the amoxicillin). I blame the fact that even though I myself have never asked for or been given antibiotics for anything other than bacterial infections, other people have, especially kids with viral ear infections whose parents demanded antibiotics despite their uselessness against viruses. Thanks to that practice, I am now having to wrestle with "superbugs" I used to be able to get rid of with ease. Thanks a lot, stupid parents, who demanded that doctors overtreat/mistreat your kids just because you couldn't stand their screaming.

[AngryAmish]

14. THis is, of course, complete nonsense

Crap immune systems means what, exactly? Do they overreact to infection or irritation? Under-react? Less resistance to infection? What are the metrics to prove that any particular age group has a superior immune system?

Now, I agree with you that antibiotics are over prescribed. That is indisputable.

[snagglepuss]

2. That's truly amazing. thanks for posting nt

[Kali]

3. is it just me or does this post go WAY off the page?

like twice as wide as the screen for me???:wtf:

[MetaTrope]

4. Seems to be due to the link in the OP

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Yeah, but it's well worth going to the original article

There's a lot more there - a few hospitals in England and the US have tried adopting the Norwegian approach, and it's had very good effects. So that seems to show the spread of MRSA can be reversed with this, not just stopped from further spreading (as the Norwegians have shown can be done).

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[gleaner]

7. The bug is MRSA ......

It nearly killed my husband last year. He was in the hospital for 14 weeks. During that time it destroyed a heart valve which had to be replaced, caused endocarditis and damaged the apex of his heart in such a way that it could not be bypassed. His left heart ventricle will be weak for the rest of his life. He had to have a second heart surgery to implant an ICD which is a pacemaker that will fibrillate his heart if it goes out of rhythm. And it could. It was quivering in his chest instead of beating, hence the ICD. One surgeon told me he spent all 8 hours of the surgery picking the dead MRSA that they had finally found an antibiotic to kill off of and out of my husband's heart. He now is short of breath and has to sleep in a sitting position with a machine that forces oxygen into his lungs so that he can take some of the strain off of his heart. He spends much of his time in a hospital bed here at home.

The MRSA damaged his lungs, attacked his bone marrow so that his blood does not clot quickly. He can't shave with a razor because of a low platelet count. His liver was damaged so that his kidneys excrete ammonia into his blood. He takes medicine for that 4 times a day as well as a whole galaxy of heart and blood pressure drugs.

He cannot walk anymore except for short distances with a walker. The MRSA did that but the doctors don't know why. The one antibiotic that finally killed it was Vancomyacin which is so toxic that ICU technicians have to administer it. My husband developed an allergy to it which caused anaphalaxis and damaged his kidneys. They will never be normal again. For a while his left arm was paralyzed, but physical therapy brought back his range of motion.

He was running fevers of 105 or higher until they found an antibiotic which began killing the MRSA in his blood, so his eyesight was damaged and his skin is so frail that it splits like cellophane. he will have a greater susceptibility to infection for the rest of his life and any infection he does have can blow up the MRSA which is cultured in his body. Not contagious now, but latent.

I have posted about this before here and I tell you this because he did not catch in a hospital or a medical setting. The Epidemiologist the hospital called in never was able to find out where he caught it. The ICU nurses said it is now "in the wild" which means floating around outside the hospital where anyone can catch it. It is as contagious as flu. The whole time he was in the hospital no one could enter his room without a gown, gloves and finally masks. Nothing he touched could leave his room. They did scans and tests on portable machines and sanitized them as soon as they were outside his door. A boy who was a high school athlete was admitted around the same time as my husband and was dead within 3 days. He was 17 and very healthy before the MRSA.

I tell you this to urge you to keep your hands sanitized, don't touch your eyes nose or mouth until you wash your hands. Treat it as if you were avoiding the flu. There is no prevention but this and no cure. Thank you for taking the time to read this and remember that plagues did not end in the middle ages.

[Soylent Brice]

9. George Carlin had a bit about when he was a kid that they swam in the Hudson.

immune system was great since. swimming in feces/industrial waste/corpse laden waters will do that.

thanks for the article.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Let's hope so.

I'd hate to see us moved back to 1913 in regards to how we treat infections. Not to mention the potential loss of such medical breakthroughs as organ transplant surgeries.