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The Age of the Superbug Is Here

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Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#101

Post by arethuza »

the-dude wrote: post #44
arethuza wrote: post #4

We got a scare a couple of years back when our teenage son got an eye infection - the doctors and eye hospital went through five different antibiotics before finally finding something that fixed it, which was quite stressful. NB When you are warned not to wear contact lenses in swimming pools - take it seriously! We're almost certain that's how he got the problem.

Were these soft or hard lenses? The one time I had to switch to softs, I had an infection in 2 weeks. My lens hygiene procedures are not compatible with softs apparently.

They were single use daily soft lenses - which I've used for a few years.

He had only been using them for a week or so and wasn't that good at getting them out so I suspect he must have scratched his eye while getting them out after swimming.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#102

Post by senorjazz »

rufius wrote: post #77
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…

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

Can confirm South America.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#103

Post by bitwize »

darawk wrote: post #97

I spoke to an MD/biochemist friend of mine about this issue recently, and was told that this really isn't that big a deal. Specifically that antibiotic resistance is usually a self-limiting trait, so bacteria that evolve that capability will quickly lose it when no longer in a hostile environment. So these 'superbugs' can be an issue in particular settings, like hospitals, but are unlikely to ever produce major globa…

All of which would be true -- in an environment where antibiotics weren't being pumped into battery-farmed livestock.

But we don't live in that world.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#104

Post by imaginenore »

darawk wrote: post #97

I spoke to an MD/biochemist friend of mine about this issue recently, and was told that this really isn't that big a deal. Specifically that antibiotic resistance is usually a self-limiting trait, so bacteria that evolve that capability will quickly lose it when no longer in a hostile environment. So these 'superbugs' can be an issue in particular settings, like hospitals, but are unlikely to ever produce major globa…

I think he is wrong. He have all kinds of antibiotic-resistant diseases in the wild, and so we have to introduce new antibiotics all the time.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#106

Post by gnashville »

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.

Easy in concept but the beef cartel would fight tooth and nail against something like this.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#107

Post by tedunangst »

darawk wrote: post #97

I spoke to an MD/biochemist friend of mine about this issue recently, and was told that this really isn't that big a deal. Specifically that antibiotic resistance is usually a self-limiting trait, so bacteria that evolve that capability will quickly lose it when no longer in a hostile environment. So these 'superbugs' can be an issue in particular settings, like hospitals, but are unlikely to ever produce major globa…

I've seen very little discussion of this. Is antibiotic resistant (proof?) TB in 2016 deadlier than TB without antibiotics in 1916? That seems extremely unlikely, but pop news coverage basically makes it sound like we're all going to die.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#109

Post by pmoriarty »

livestockboy wrote: post #93
zdkl wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe my pun about meet/meat confused you but the problem definitely isn't limited to meat production. You should see the quantites of pesticides/fertilisers/treatment agents used in the extensive culture of plants. The question holds, if you don't intend to back current production levels that are only possible through over intensive exploitation to the detriment of the product and it's growing medium, what alternati…

Use of pesticides in plant agriculture is mostly driven by huge demand of meat/dairy industry for feed. GMOs also aren't exactly necessary if you don't have 90 billion mouths to feed every day. There are some vegetables that are easily grown in unsuitable areas with GM, and some people do use pesticides and GMOs to "defeat" the market but if international logistics weren't so hard it would be easier to just import th…

I would not be so pessimistic. Lots of things that many people thought certain would never happen or would take a very long time have happened in relatively short order.

Things like the fall of the Soviet Union, desegregation in the US, man on the moon, etc. Even things that required great international cooperation have happened. Like the eradication of smallpox and polio, the creation of the United Nations, etc.

But the reduction of meat consumption and reliance on factory farming need not be done on a global level to be worthwhile. It can happen one country at a time. Even one person or one animal at a time will be helpful, even if it won't solve everything. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Re: The Age of the Superbug Is Here

#110

Post by cesarbs »

rufius wrote: post #77
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…

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

It used to be like that in Brazil, but in recent years Anvisa (the Brazilian equivalent of the FDA) tightened policy on this and now people can only buy antibiotics with a prescription.

BTW, in my experience Brazilian doctors prescribe antibiotics a lot less than American doctors.

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