(Scary to contemplate): Are you ready for a world without antibiotics?

guardian.co.uk ^ | 12 August 2010 | Sarah Boseley

[Publius804]

Just 65 years ago, David Livermore's paternal grandmother died following an operation to remove her appendix. It didn't go well, but it was not the surgery that killed her. She succumbed to a series of infections that the pre-penicillin world had no drugs to treat. Welcome to the future.

The era of antibiotics is coming to a close. In just a couple of generations, what once appeared to be miracle medicines have been beaten into ineffectiveness by the bacteria they were designed to knock out. Once, scientists hailed the end of infectious diseases. Now, the post-antibiotic apocalypse is within sight.

Hyperbole? Unfortunately not. The highly serious journal Lancet Infectious Diseases yesterday posed the question itself over a paper revealing the rapid spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. "Is this the end of antibiotics?" it asked.

Doctors and scientists have not been complacent, but the paper by Professor Tim Walsh and colleagues takes the anxiety to a new level. Last September, Walsh published details of a gene he had discovered, called NDM 1, which passes easily between types of bacteria called enterobacteriaceae such as E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and makes them resistant to almost all of the powerful, last-line group of antibiotics called carbapenems. Yesterday's paper revealed that NDM 1 is widespread in India and has arrived here as a result of global travel and medical tourism for, among other things, transplants, pregnancy care and cosmetic surgery.

"In many ways, this is it," Walsh tells me. "This is potentially the end. There are no antibiotics in the pipeline that have activity against NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae. We have a bleak window of maybe 10 years, where we are going to have to use the antibiotics we have very wisely...

[steve86]

I got rejected for hyperbaric treatment myself but it is worth a consultation to see if you’re eligible. It certainly isn’t painful and does no harm.

[goseminoles]

You said it better than me. Thanks.

[RadiationRomeo]

When a new disease becomes impossible to cure it will arrive in the US via a leaky border.

[GailA]

And with 0’nazicare it won’t happen any time soon.

[SunkenCiv]

Most of the problem with antibiotics lies with the idiotic parents who give them to their kids until they seem to feel better, then save the rest of the prescribed number of pills “for the next time”. Thanks Publius804

[ArmyTeach]

Don’t allow third world visitors or immigrants without a medical exam/quarantine period We used to do that. My son-in-law had swine flu last Christmas, and I came down with it later. Felt like death warmed over. Didn't correlate it at the time, didn't see a doctor. Lay myself out on the sofa for a week, drank a lot of water and didn't eat much. It just dawned on me later that I had survived the swine flu.

[decimon]

Thanks.

I know the secret to all of this. Don’t get sick.

[Secret Agent Man]

Possibly not. They are used best as immune boosters and strenghtening the body to prevent such deep infections in the first place.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

That is the best plan, bar none.

[Shadowstrike]

and coconut oil.

[Chickensoup]

And learn to use quarentine... and turning back ill people...which are the best of the old measures to slow outbreaks.

[little jeremiah]

It’s coming back, with a few genetic changes more common, that enable it to replicate deeper in the lungs. People are dying like flies in India right now, hospitals are full in NZ. Flu is starting to happen and might very well be worse this year. The idea that it is a “mild” flu is made up by risk communicators hired by the WHO and the CDC to make it so people weren’t scared and would keep shopping.

[dmzTahoe]

But do you have anything that will help tinnitus?

[Kozak]

Probably cuz he knew he and his colleagues were over prescribing the ecisting drugs to anyone with a cold (which is not helped by antibiotics anyway).

Yeah because
1. Patients demand it. You can explain till you are blue in the face that it's most likely a virus and antibiotics won't help, and they still demand it. If you don't give it to them they call you a quack, go to another who will prescibe it, and when they get better, attribute it to the antiobiotic.

2. We get sued if we don't. Even if there is no evidence an antibiotic would have made a difference.

3. People bitch on their "patient satisfaction surveys". In the ER we now get rated like car salesmen by surveys. If we don't give them EXACTLY what they want, we get hammered on the surveys, and can loose our jobs.

Lots of people have had a hand in screwing this pooch.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Tinnitus has multiple causes, and there are 2 basic types. Can you give a description of it - ringing, pulsating, screaming, roaring, etc. - and tell us what prescription and OTC drugs you are taking, even aspirin can cause it after certain ear infections.

[annelizly]

yeah, I for one can count on one hand the times i have used anti biotics in my lifetime. I should be ok :)

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Research the folks that have turned blue, then get back to me. They all did incredibly stupid things.

[Pessimist]

Whoa, doc...

Along with your authority comes responsiblity.

The last time I checked, it was your responsibility to prescribe wisely and in accordance with you training.

Not because you might lose business or get called a quack or get a bad review.

And I think you’re being disengenuous re the lawsuits. So, somebody has a cold or virus, you don’t prescrive antibiotics, and you get sued?

Let’s be honest here....

I think it is the nature of people in the med profession to want to help people. At the end of a visit, you crave the gratitude of the patient for doing so. When faced with approbation instead, you cave.

[freespirited]

When that bacteria evelves into a different kind of life, that will be evolution.

That would be a redefinition of the term evolution.

Evolution is change in the gene pool of a population over time. Under that definition, which is still the one used in the world of biology, this is evolution.

[RoadGumby]

Evolution is a change in form. i.e. Life came from the sea, developed legs, fur, feathers, wings, etc.

A bird developing a bigger beak in dry seasons due to thicker seed husks is not evolution. It is still a bird. When that bird is observed becoming something other than bird, get back to me.