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The Age of the Superbug Is Here

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Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#151

Post by pdabbadabba »

tombert wrote: post #61

There's a pretty good Frontline about this...I didn't see this fact listed in the article, but another huge problem is that it's generally not profitable for big medicine corporations to research new antibiotics, which means that for the time-being, we're stuck with our current regime.

I find this implausible. Surely pharmaceutical companies are as aware as anyone of the growing antibiotic-resistance problem and know that there will likely be a return on their investments in new antibiotic research. Sure, these companies sometimes exhibit a bias towards short-term gains, but they also aren't run by morons. And if they are run by morons, I see some great start-up opportunities...

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#152

Post by kamaal »

rm2889 wrote: post #68

I live in India and despite some improvements, the level of antibiotic abuse here is shocking. They're available over the counter and people self-medicate with antibiotics all the time. The attitude is, "if my sore throat doesn't go away in a couple of days, its time to take antibiotics. No point in going to the doc coz they'll prescribe antibiotics too and this way I save money." People self-medicating on antibiotic…

Its actually more worse.

Its like "I seem to have sore throat, let me take this anti-biotic right now, so that it doesn't escalate to something big later"

And they are right too. Most doctors write down the same regimen of antibiotics every single time.

Either way most doctors in India care about nothing apart from money and their immediate interests. Many realize they will never do a MD, so there are a lot of small time clinics, with rudimentary testing labs for blood work. They only care about maximizing per visit consultation fees and commission they get from the pharmacy store next door.

Its a huge mess, and there are no ways to fix it given the population scale.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#153

Post by kamaal »

DanBC wrote: post #145
rufius wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd imagine it's not much different in Central and South America based on my travels. You can walk into any pharmacy and show them the word "amoxicillin" and they'll give you a 2 week course. Edit: a word

That's bad, but at least it's a two week course. Often people in India will buy a few days because that's all they can afford.

So this is the way it works in India. Most people who know a little english remember the brand name of the drug.

Others just walk to the pharmacy store and narrate the symptoms to the pharmacist. Typically: Sore throat, a little fever etc. Then they state their budget(10-20 rupees), the pharmacist gives two tablets of Azithromycin.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#154

Post by [deleted] »

DanBC wrote: post #145
rufius wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd imagine it's not much different in Central and South America based on my travels. You can walk into any pharmacy and show them the word "amoxicillin" and they'll give you a 2 week course. Edit: a word

That's bad, but at least it's a two week course. Often people in India will buy a few days because that's all they can afford.

[deleted]

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#155

Post by radus »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #151
tombert wrote: post #61

There's a pretty good Frontline about this...I didn't see this fact listed in the article, but another huge problem is that it's generally not profitable for big medicine corporations to research new antibiotics, which means that for the time-being, we're stuck with our current regime.

I find this implausible. Surely pharmaceutical companies are as aware as anyone of the growing antibiotic-resistance problem and know that there will likely be a return on their investments in new antibiotic research. Sure, these companies sometimes exhibit a bias towards short-term gains, but they also aren't run by morons. And if they are run by morons, I see some great start-up opportunities...

The reason they are not profitable is because generally antibiotics are only taken for short time periods. Additionally, it is almost certain that new antibiotics will be obsoleted by the emergence of resistance. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on bringing a drug to market is already a risky proposition, even more so when your drug will be consumed in low quantities and may be useless before the patent even expires.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#156

Post by radus »

Fomite wrote: post #149
tombert wrote: post #61

There's a pretty good Frontline about this...I didn't see this fact listed in the article, but another huge problem is that it's generally not profitable for big medicine corporations to research new antibiotics, which means that for the time-being, we're stuck with our current regime.

There is active research funded by large pharmaceutical companies in developing new antibiotics. Merck bought Cubist Pharmaceuticals for a reason.

Merck followed the purchase with firing a large chunk of Cubist's researchers. It's more likely that they purchased Cubist for Dapto, a proven winner and billion dollar drug, and maybe for their pipeline. I wouldn't hold my breath for Merck to follow through on the research beyond trawling through whatever Cubist had in development already.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#157

Post by Fomite »

radus wrote: post #156
Fomite wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is active research funded by large pharmaceutical companies in developing new antibiotics. Merck bought Cubist Pharmaceuticals for a reason.

Merck followed the purchase with firing a large chunk of Cubist's researchers. It's more likely that they purchased Cubist for Dapto, a proven winner and billion dollar drug, and maybe for their pipeline. I wouldn't hold my breath for Merck to follow through on the research beyond trawling through whatever Cubist had in development already.

"Merck bought a company for their already successful antibiotic and the others they had in the pipeline" hardly undermines the notion that there's still money in antibiotic development.

And they're still funding studies for Fidaxomicin.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#158

Post by IndianAstronaut »

dharmach wrote: post #141
alkonaut wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A country that allows humans to buy antibiotics over the counter OR allows antibiotic use in healthy livestock needs to be heavily sanctioned very quickly. Sanctions from the international community can include ceasing aid, adding visa requirements or other travel restrictions, food import bans, or whatever. I don't understand why other countries (and the international community as a whole) still accept this behavior…

"Approximately 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States are used in meat and poultry production.2 The vast majority is used on healthy animals to promote growth, or prevent disease in crowded or unsanitary conditions." https://consumersunion.org/news/the-overuse-of-antibiotics-i...

We spend so many billions in subsidies to farmers, I wonder why we can't push them to adopt better growing and animal husbandry practices.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#159

Post by Iv »

Diederich wrote: post #88
rm2889 wrote: post #68

I live in India and despite some improvements, the level of antibiotic abuse here is shocking. They're available over the counter and people self-medicate with antibiotics all the time. The attitude is, "if my sore throat doesn't go away in a couple of days, its time to take antibiotics. No point in going to the doc coz they'll prescribe antibiotics too and this way I save money." People self-medicating on antibiotic…

This is pretty fucking terrifying. A bacterial 'petri dish' of over a billion humans.

India is actually the free world's final exam. Biggest democracy in the world, a population that will soon surpass China, yet it is poor, uneducated, the government is highly dysfunctional.

Every year that we fail to help India reach the superpower status hints at chinese-style authoritarianism being a superior model. I wish we would spend more time and effort helping them.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#160

Post by rleigh »

foldr wrote: post #17
nkozyra wrote: post #13

Earlier 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

It seems like a lot of these warnings relate to reusable lenses. I use daily disposables, and I really can't see how, say, getting tap water on them when I'm wearing them can be any more dangerous than splashing tap water in my eye.

If any microorganism gets in your eye, it will usually be washed out of the eye by your tears and the sweep of the eyelid. If you're wearing contacts, it can get trapped in the film of liquid between the contact lens and the cornea, or in the film around the edge, and the tears and eyelid sweep will not be able to eliminate it. It's then in an environment where it's free to multiply and cause problems.
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