Very naive question: won't bacteria lose their resistance after a while? What if we cycle certain antibiotics on an annual basis? When we reintroduce them, they'll be more powerful. Right?
The Age of the Superbug Is Here
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Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#32Very naive question: won't bacteria lose their resistance after a while? What if we cycle certain antibiotics on an annual basis? When we reintroduce them, they'll be more powerful. Right?
Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been wearing contacts most of my life and have never heard said warning. Given pools are typically fairly sterile, I'm not sure if understand it. Now freshwater lakes or oceans under certain conditions I could understand
Swimming pools are far from sterile. The chlorine and other additives serve to inhibit the growth of organisms, but with so many contaminating bodies in it, they are far from sterile. Some public pools, not assiduously managed, at the end of the day, take on more than the aroma of chlorine; but even those that don't are not free of bacteria and other interesting life.
Edit: As a note to the pedants, of course sterile" is a binary, I used that casually to mean "less microbrial than a lot of the places where our eyes go." ;) <- right eye unfortunately hit the unsterile waters of a chlorinated pool.
Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#34Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that's true at all. I think the issue with contacts (even dailies) is that they can trap pathogens on the surface of the eye and give them a place to breed, allowing an infection to take hold. This could happen within a day while you have your lenses on. I think dailies are somewhat safer, because you're starting each day with a sterile pair. But splashing any non-sterile water onto them is a mistake.
I think that one source of infection is dirty storage pots. That's what NHS Choices says, and they tend to be evidence based (although we can argue about the evidence they use). http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Eyehealth/Pages/Contactlenssafety...
Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the choice is cheap meat or antibiotics (and yes I know it's not quite that simple) then I'll take antibiotics.
> If the choice is cheap meat or antibiotics Easy to say when you're wealthy, no so much when you consider yourself healthy but poor.
Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#37Very naive question: won't bacteria lose their resistance after a while? What if we cycle certain antibiotics on an annual basis? When we reintroduce them, they'll be more powerful. Right?
The second part is in the works, constantly. The first part, however, is proving difficult.
Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#38Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#39It's all a lie. Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg told all deceases will be cured till 2100.
Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here
#40Very naive question: won't bacteria lose their resistance after a while? What if we cycle certain antibiotics on an annual basis? When we reintroduce them, they'll be more powerful. Right?
DNA is good at accumulating, and relatively poor at editing out. Some bacteria will lose resistance, just like your ancestors lost the ability to make Vitamin C. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145266/ but you only need one single bacteria to have not lost the ability.
> What if we cycle certain antibiotics on an annual basis?
it helps. We can also stack them, and use multiple attacks at the same time. which also helps. But it just delays the inevitable.
> When we reintroduce them, they'll be more powerful. Right?
the bacteria, yes. because they'll have accumulated defense mechanisms.
Ultimately, I think we win this race, because we can intelligently and actively edit DNA.