‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll • Hacker News Board

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#51

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:13 PM UTC

wildmusings wrote: post #21

ocschwar wrote: post #17

Bear in mind that in the US, our lovely republican party literally made it illegal to research where the superbugs are being bred. In the US, the problem is mostly pig and cattle feedlots that rely on antibiotics to keep the animals from being sickened but he crowding. Naturally, there is no proof that superbugs are coming out of the feedlots, because the feedlot owners do not allow any sort of sample collection by s…

Should someone be allowed to sneak into a company's building, or pretend to be an honest employee, just to investigate potential wrongdoing? That's the government's job, not private activists'. If someone wants to walk into your private property and research your operations, you should have the right to tell them to beat feet. If there is a legitimate public interest then the government should create an inspection sc…

> If someone wants to walk into your private property and research your operations, you should have the right to tell them to beat feet.

To the extent that there is a valid right here, how is regular, generally-applicable civil and criminal trespassing law an insufficient vindication of the valid rights at issue so as to require special additional "ag-gag" laws providing additional privileges to a particular industry?

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#52

Post by lgleason » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:14 PM UTC

codezero wrote: post #5

My mother in law, a healthy 50 year old, recently died of an unspecified infection. They still don't know what it was or why antibiotics weren't helping. Ultimately, her lungs gave out after more than a week on life support. Was it a superbug? Dunno, and nothing in her medical record leaves any indication that it might have been, the world just moved on.

I mother died from this in her late 60s after a operation on her back. It was MRSA and we made sure that made it on the death certificate.

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#53

Post by cmurf » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

badminton1 wrote: post #38

alkonaut wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just vote to outlaw antibiotics use in healthy livestock and make sure there is a rigorous inspection apparatus? Farmers are few, people who get diseases are many. Shouldn't be too hard.

"The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of a man who succumbs to infection with a penicillin-resistant organism." - Sir Alexander Fleming

OK and how do you locate and invoice all of these morally responsible individuals who have led to this resistance? It's hundreds of thousands of doctors. I doubt their malpractice insurance will cover this. And then aside from the unnecessary prescriptions, because the ignorant patient-consumer demanded it, is the ignorant patient-consumer who doesn't take the entire prescribed dosage which is itself the far bigger problem that lead to resistance. How are they punished and insured for their immorality?

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#54

Post by at-fates-hands » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

ocschwar wrote: post #17

Bear in mind that in the US, our lovely republican party literally made it illegal to research where the superbugs are being bred. In the US, the problem is mostly pig and cattle feedlots that rely on antibiotics to keep the animals from being sickened but he crowding. Naturally, there is no proof that superbugs are coming out of the feedlots, because the feedlot owners do not allow any sort of sample collection by s…

>> Now comes the GOP with the "ag-gag" laws

What states are you referring to? Most of these laws that were introduced in the 1990's have all been deemed unconstitutional in the states where they were passed. Not to mention, any other states that have attempted to pass these laws have failed.

I'm sure you enjoy demonizing the GOP, but I don't see much merit in your argument if there are no states where these laws are currently in effect and nobody has been successfully convicted of violating these laws.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ag-gag

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#55

Post by brightsize » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:20 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #29

esaym wrote: post #14

I skimmed the article, I only saw mention of MRSA. Is that the "super bug" they talk about? This is for the most part why I won't step foot in a hospital unless I am literally on my death bed. The last research I read about MRSA (years ago) was it was hard to study because lab rats could not be easily infected with it unless it was directly injected into their blood stream. This shows just how nasty hospitals are. No…

> Nobody gets MRSA unless they are in the hospital. You might want to read about Community Acquired MRSA. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/id-mi/camrsa-eng.php http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/6/01-0313_article > To estimate the proportion of community-acquired MRSA, we analyzed previous hospitalizations for all MRSA-positive persons in Finland from1997 to 1999 by using data from the National Hospital Discharge Register.…

My brother got exactly this, presumably from swimming in the ocean during a vacation in the Philippines. I speculate that there was sewage being released into the sea somewhere not far from where he was staying. He lived, but the infection site was pretty nasty to behold.

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#56

Post by lgleason » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:20 PM UTC

My mother died from a MRSA infection after getting back surgery. It's really nasty stuff and a very painful way for someone to die.

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#57

Post by merpnderp » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:21 PM UTC

andrewclunn wrote: post #43

So avoid hospitals unless absolutely needed. Gotcha.

Or only go to the top hospitals in the country. Comparing how the staff at a place like MD Anderson manages sanitary conditions compared to county or state hospitals is mind boggling.

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#58

Post by _delirium » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:26 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #54

ocschwar wrote: post #17

Bear in mind that in the US, our lovely republican party literally made it illegal to research where the superbugs are being bred. In the US, the problem is mostly pig and cattle feedlots that rely on antibiotics to keep the animals from being sickened but he crowding. Naturally, there is no proof that superbugs are coming out of the feedlots, because the feedlot owners do not allow any sort of sample collection by s…

>> Now comes the GOP with the "ag-gag" laws What states are you referring to? Most of these laws that were introduced in the 1990's have all been deemed unconstitutional in the states where they were passed. Not to mention, any other states that have attempted to pass these laws have failed. I'm sure you enjoy demonizing the GOP, but I don't see much merit in your argument if there are no states where these laws are…

According to that link, the laws are mostly recent, passed in the 2010s rather than 1990s, e.g. 2014 for Idaho's and 2012 for Missouri's. And I don't see anywhere there that they've all been struck down. Only one is mentioned as having been struck down, Idaho's, and from what I can find that's still being litigated, currently being heard by an appeals court [1].

[1] http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/12/idaho-appeals-federal-...

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#59

Post by ocschwar » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:26 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #54

ocschwar wrote: post #17

Bear in mind that in the US, our lovely republican party literally made it illegal to research where the superbugs are being bred. In the US, the problem is mostly pig and cattle feedlots that rely on antibiotics to keep the animals from being sickened but he crowding. Naturally, there is no proof that superbugs are coming out of the feedlots, because the feedlot owners do not allow any sort of sample collection by s…

>> Now comes the GOP with the "ag-gag" laws What states are you referring to? Most of these laws that were introduced in the 1990's have all been deemed unconstitutional in the states where they were passed. Not to mention, any other states that have attempted to pass these laws have failed. I'm sure you enjoy demonizing the GOP, but I don't see much merit in your argument if there are no states where these laws are…

Wyoming's one example:

https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2016/wyomings-ag-gag-law-d...

Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll

#60

Post by refurb » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 5:27 PM UTC

badminton1 wrote: post #23

ocschwar wrote: post #17

Bear in mind that in the US, our lovely republican party literally made it illegal to research where the superbugs are being bred. In the US, the problem is mostly pig and cattle feedlots that rely on antibiotics to keep the animals from being sickened but he crowding. Naturally, there is no proof that superbugs are coming out of the feedlots, because the feedlot owners do not allow any sort of sample collection by s…

Farmers massively administer antibiotics so they can keep animals in crowded/unsanitary conditions. If antibiotics were administered properly that would severely affect their revenue.

I think you have an unrealistic view of what mother nature is like. Wild animals (i.e. not in feed lots) succumb to disease, including bacteria infections all the time. Even with free-range animals, you'd have a ton of livestock dying (and suffering needlessly) if you never allowed antibiotics to be used.