Free Republic

A syphilis epidemic has broken out in the US and clinics say its a struggle to get antibiotics. The antibiotic treatment for the sexually transmitted disease is running low across the United States while the number of infections has risen to high levels. This has prompted dozens of public health groups to ask the White House to intervene.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1.Delegation of Re-establishment Authority.The Secretary of Health and Human Services is delegated the authority under section 9(a)(1) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App.), to re-establish the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (Council).  In exercising this authority, the Secretary may direct the Council to perform duties consistent with those assigned to the Council in section 505(b) of Public Law 116-22,...

FOR years experts have warned there would come a day when antibiotics would cease being effective. And it seems that day could be sooner than first thought after scientists discovered a new superbug that is not just impervious to the last line of defence medication, but has the ability to infect other bacteria. But instead of destroying its virulent cousins this new strain of e.coli actually strengthens them by giving them the same antibiotic shield.

The joke that's going around is that the Mayans got it wrong: The world is ending this year, not 2012. Here's the lates sign of that. A superbug is spreading around America, and has hit Southern California. LA Times: A dangerous drug-resistant bacterium has spread to patients in Southern California, according to a study by Los Angeles County public health officials. More than 350 cases of the Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, or CRKP, have been reported at healthcare facilities in Los Angeles County, mostly among elderly patients at skilled-nursing and long-term care facilities, according to a study by Dr. Dawn Terashita,...

Antibiotic-resistant strain of syphilis is spreading A fast-spreading mutant strain of syphilis has proved resistant to the antibiotic pills that are offered to some patients as an alternative to painful penicillin shots. Since the late 1990s, doctors and public health clinics have been giving azithromycin to some syphilis patients because the long-acting antibiotic pill was highly effective and easy to use. Four pills taken at once were usually enough to cure syphilis. But now researchers at University of Washington in Seattle have found at least 10 percent of syphilis samples from patients at sexually transmitted disease clinics in four cities...