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My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

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Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#61

Post by rincebrain »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #59
ImprovedSilence wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having silverware actually made out of silver existed for sanitary reasons as well. Same reason to throw a silver dollar in your well.

Unfortunately, it's also a cause of metal poisoning. "Blue blood" was a term for upper class families with silverware who had silver poisoning because of it. My recollection: we don't know how to treat silver poisoning.

AFAICT silver itself is not poisonous in any useful way - your skin might turn blue, and you'll metabolize certain compounds worse, but it won't kill you, or even slow you down much.

Now, if it was silver and arsenic, or some other toxic compound, that'd be a very bad time, but elemental silver shouldn't be any worse than mildly annoying.

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#62

Post by autokad »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #59
ImprovedSilence wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having silverware actually made out of silver existed for sanitary reasons as well. Same reason to throw a silver dollar in your well.

Unfortunately, it's also a cause of metal poisoning. "Blue blood" was a term for upper class families with silverware who had silver poisoning because of it. My recollection: we don't know how to treat silver poisoning.

its my understanding that "Blue blood" comes from the fact that most of them were pale and you can really see their blue veins, not that they were all poisoned by their silverware.

its my understanding that silverware is very safe, and getting silver poisoning from eating off it is extremely unlikely. they'd have to be eating their silverware to notice any difference

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#63

Post by WoodenChair »

blago wrote: post #52
concerned209 wrote: post #10

Any recommendations on what an individual could do to help? Organizations to donate to? Challenges that could be tackled by a startup? Promising companies to consider investing in? Also, can anybody explain why the CDC doesn’t mandate reporting?

Antibiotic company stocks have been decimated in the last couple of years so if you feel adventurous and prepared to lose your savings, this is a great time to buy.

What are some example companies/symbols?

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#64

Post by riffraff »

lkrubner wrote: post #28
concerned209 wrote: post #10

Any recommendations on what an individual could do to help? Organizations to donate to? Challenges that could be tackled by a startup? Promising companies to consider investing in? Also, can anybody explain why the CDC doesn’t mandate reporting?

90% of all antibiotics are used in agricultural and the CDC has no jurisdiction over agriculture.

that's unrelated to why they don't enforce reporting of all antibiotic-resisting cases.

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#65

Post by blago »

WoodenChair wrote: post #63
blago wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Antibiotic company stocks have been decimated in the last couple of years so if you feel adventurous and prepared to lose your savings, this is a great time to buy.

What are some example companies/symbols?

NASDAQ: MLNT

OTCMKTS: AKAOQ

Read here for more info: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-03/antibioti...

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#66

Post by thayne »

whytaka wrote: post #58

It’s been a number of years now that I have become aware of MRSA and superbugs. The moment I read on this is also the moment I have come to be aware of phage therapy as a promising path of overcoming this new threat. This article yet again reports on the lack of awareness about bacteriophages in the medical community. I just can’t understand why it is like that. I, an idiot, have heard about it. How do people, who se…

> I just can’t understand why it is like that.

My guess is because phage treatments are difficult or impossible to patent, and therefore unattractive to pharmaceutical companies. And pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to push their own treatments on doctors and hospitals.

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#67

Post by benj111 »

gumby wrote: post #15

One factor that will return once people start to panic is table manners, many of which seem fussy (separate saving utensils, a butter knife, not putting used utensils onto the table) but actually evolved for hygiene reasons. Sadly of course like any complex behavior it was also hijacked for sumptuary purposes (grape shears, egg spoons, not finishing your plate in some cultures) but I hold out a hope (probably in vail…

You complain about implements that could spread germs about, but also complain about grape shears that prevent everyone digging into the shared grapes with their bare hands.

What actually is the risk of inter person bacterial infection like this? Is there not more risk of getting ecoli from the shared salad, than the shared salad spoon?

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#69

Post by whytaka »

thayne wrote: post #66
whytaka wrote: post #58

It’s been a number of years now that I have become aware of MRSA and superbugs. The moment I read on this is also the moment I have come to be aware of phage therapy as a promising path of overcoming this new threat. This article yet again reports on the lack of awareness about bacteriophages in the medical community. I just can’t understand why it is like that. I, an idiot, have heard about it. How do people, who se…

> I just can’t understand why it is like that. My guess is because phage treatments are difficult or impossible to patent, and therefore unattractive to pharmaceutical companies. And pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to push their own treatments on doctors and hospitals.

I can suppose that economic incentives don’t align for its availability in the field but it doesn’t account for the ignorance of the practitioners. Bacteriophages are almost always one of the first things mentioned when the inevitable futility of antibiotics is discussed.

Re: My Husband Became a Poster Child of the Post-Antibiotic Era

#70

Post by benj111 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #22
concerned209 wrote: post #10

Any recommendations on what an individual could do to help? Organizations to donate to? Challenges that could be tackled by a startup? Promising companies to consider investing in? Also, can anybody explain why the CDC doesn’t mandate reporting?

I'm having trouble figuring out how to reply to the way you are framing the problem space. There are several Einstein quotes along the lines of "A problem cannot be solved using the same thinking that created it." The problem of antibiotic resistance won't be solved with the same mindset that got us here. One thing contributing to the rise of antibiotic resistance is poor santitation in developing countries. Another…

"One thing contributing to the rise of antibiotic resistance is poor santitation in developing countries. Another is poverty."

I assume this is why you were getting downvotes? I was going to too, but it does actually check out.

https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/antibiotic-abuse-in-...

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