Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Age of the Superbug Is Here

huffingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 164 posts

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#51

Post by mrob »

nkozyra wrote: post #33
triplesec wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well I specifically didn't say "sterile" but rather "fairly sterile" compared to other water sources. 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.

There is no "fairly sterile" -- things are either sterile or they're not. "Sterile" means zero viable microbes. It might be fairly sanitary compared to other water sources but any water treatment that's actually sterile is going to kill the swimmers.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#52

Post by biesnecker »

lossolo wrote: post #6

This is an amazing video[1] from Harvard Medical School released couple of days ago showing evolution of bacteria that evolve in 10 days to become resistant to antibiotics. [1] https://youtu.be/plVk4NVIUh8

Amazing video.

Question that comes to mind is how easy would it be to take the bacteria that make it to the center, and put them on a new plate with a different antibiotic in the same configuration, and then repeat until you've gone through all available antibiotics, then scoop that last batch up and do something really nasty with it?

It must be harder than it seems, because otherwise why do terrorists and the like even bother with (seemingly much harder to obtain, though admittedly flashier) chemical and nuclear weapons?

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#53

Post by UweSchmidt »

livestockboy wrote: post #3

easy solution is to just heavily tax dairy, livestock and other industries that produce hundreds of billions of bacteria testing grounds (animals) per year at the same time using last-resport antibiotics to spur growth and reap profits. or give extreme tax benefits to those that don't use antibiotics.

Or cut down on the meat and dairy consumption?

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#54

Post by mikeleung »

naz wrote: post #29

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?

Radio lab did a story about this, they tested an old antibiotic recipe.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/best-medicine/

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#55

Post by saiya-jin »

biesnecker wrote: post #52
lossolo wrote: post #6

This is an amazing video[1] from Harvard Medical School released couple of days ago showing evolution of bacteria that evolve in 10 days to become resistant to antibiotics. [1] https://youtu.be/plVk4NVIUh8

Amazing video. Question that comes to mind is how easy would it be to take the bacteria that make it to the center, and put them on a new plate with a different antibiotic in the same configuration, and then repeat until you've gone through all available antibiotics, then scoop that last batch up and do something really nasty with it? It must be harder than it seems, because otherwise why do terrorists and the like e…

just as they gain the resistance, they gradually lose it by evolution/mutation if it's not relevant anymore (since it takes place on the genome)

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#56

Post by livestockboy »

zdkl wrote: post #48
nebula wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand what he meant: Heavy use of antibiotics in diary and poultry industry is a significant factor contributing to drug resistant bacteria. In other words, these industries are actively providing the selection pressure you referring here.

Well the selection environment is a requirement to not getting sick from eating the products. You can't just have a nice chat with the microbe unions and ask them to behave and stay off the meat...

> is a requirement to not getting sick from eating the products

one gives antibiotics to one's thousands of chickens to spur growth (body growth - gaining mass), not to protect the consumer from disease.

giving antibiotics to poultry extremely increases mass gains. post-slaughter processes add chemicals that keep meat from rotting, eradicating some of those living harmful bacteria that just so happen to turn flesh into unwanted dark piece of s+=t.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#58

Post by Retric »

biesnecker wrote: post #52
lossolo wrote: post #6

This is an amazing video[1] from Harvard Medical School released couple of days ago showing evolution of bacteria that evolve in 10 days to become resistant to antibiotics. [1] https://youtu.be/plVk4NVIUh8

Amazing video. Question that comes to mind is how easy would it be to take the bacteria that make it to the center, and put them on a new plate with a different antibiotic in the same configuration, and then repeat until you've gone through all available antibiotics, then scoop that last batch up and do something really nasty with it? It must be harder than it seems, because otherwise why do terrorists and the like e…

The problem is bacteria are generally not that dangerous. You might need antibiotics a few times in your life. But, people regularly lived to 70+ without them.

Thus post attack the deaths would take a long time to add up and be hard to trace back to some attack.

PS: I had a foot of my intestines removed without being prescribed antibiotics or getting an infection.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#59

Post by edc117 »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #53
livestockboy wrote: post #3

easy solution is to just heavily tax dairy, livestock and other industries that produce hundreds of billions of bacteria testing grounds (animals) per year at the same time using last-resport antibiotics to spur growth and reap profits. or give extreme tax benefits to those that don't use antibiotics.

Or cut down on the meat and dairy consumption?

Tax increase = higher prices = how consumption is cut down. Unfortunately most people won't listen to appeals from the scientific community.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#60

Post by grhino »

biesnecker wrote: post #52
lossolo wrote: post #6

This is an amazing video[1] from Harvard Medical School released couple of days ago showing evolution of bacteria that evolve in 10 days to become resistant to antibiotics. [1] https://youtu.be/plVk4NVIUh8

Amazing video. Question that comes to mind is how easy would it be to take the bacteria that make it to the center, and put them on a new plate with a different antibiotic in the same configuration, and then repeat until you've gone through all available antibiotics, then scoop that last batch up and do something really nasty with it? It must be harder than it seems, because otherwise why do terrorists and the like e…

Bioweapons are hard to deploy in a targeted fashion. Also, development of an antibiotic resistant bacteria that would be truly dangerous to a population requires great care during development not to kill those doing the development themselves. Also, I think we tend to overestimate the resources available to terrorists.
Post reply on HN