We May Have Reached The 'Apocalyptic Scenario' With Antibiotics

[mfcorey1]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden made headlines last year when he proclaimed that the United States would "soon be in a post-antibiotic era," meaning we'd be plagued by everyday infections that our drugs could no longer handle.

It appears that age is already on our doorstep.

Newborns in India are now dying at alarming rates from infections that were once curable, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The same deadly “superbugs” are spreading around the globe and have already come to the United States, fueled in part by our country's overuse of antibiotics on farms and in hospitals.

The problem isn't just the bacteria — it's the fact that the drugs we once relied on to kill them no longer work.
Smart Bacteria

Doctors commonly treat bacterial infections with antibiotics. When one drug doesn't work, they try another. But now, physicians are finding that some of our infections are resistant to even our strongest antibiotics.

The bacteria have, genetically speaking, outsmarted us.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/we-may-have-reached-the-apocalyptic-scenario-with-antibiotics/ar-BBgt03P?ocid=mailsignout

[Chemisse]

1. Very scary.

[still_one]

2. what they need to do is opening the door to bacterial phages. In Poland, Georgia, and Russia it is

used frequently instead of antibiotics.

http://www.nature.com/news/phage-therapy-gets-revitalized-1.15348

[AverageJoe90]

4. Why this isn't used in America already, is a bloody mystery.....

I mean, yeah, sure, the Russians only did it thanks to the Soviet government, but still.....

[still_one]

6. That is the million dollar question. Personally, I think the problem is because the drug companies

do not think they can make a substantial profit from its development.

A lot different when Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine. He insisted that the vaccine charges would only be what it cost to produce, not extra profit.

Salk was truly a humanitarian.

[AverageJoe90]

3. Worrisome for sure, but hyperbole isn't helpful. nt

(It's in the title!)

[still_one]

7. Not to 23000 people who have died because of antibiotic resistance

http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/

People can get an infection from a simple biopsy, and because of antibiotic resistance it may become life threatening

Actually, hyperbole is appropriate

[bemildred]

5. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt

[LiberalElite]

8. I may have had personal experience with that

earlier in the year. I'm asthmatic. For me, a common head cold nearly always becomes bronchitis. It's been this way for me for a couple of decades. In March I had the "routine for me" head-cold-then-bronchitis. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin. After nearly 10 days I didn't feel much better. Long story short, it took seven office visits and three different antibiotics to cure the bronchitis.

[NaturalHigh]

10. Mine was a nasty ear infection.

It landed me in the emergency room one night where they gave me a shot of levaquin. I visited my doctor the next day, and he gave me a prescription for oral levaquin. Long story short, levaquin didn't work, and the infection developed into mastoiditis. Two different antibiotics and six weeks later, I was pronounced cured. I remember my doctor saying the infection looked "angry" in the way it was developing and hanging around.

[CanonRay]

9. There seem to be a lot of apocalypses

Coming together at the same time.

[RazzleCat]

11. C-DIFF, lets not forget this nasty side effect

I am still recovering from C-Diff an "infection" caused by antibiotics. My story, bad tooth, received amox. that did not do it, then given (can't remember), followed by levi (something). Well long story short, they got that infection and destroyed my bodies fora and fauna. Ended up in the hospital for over a week, and still tired and have major gastric issues.

I am lucky in that I have a job that won't fire me over all the lost time, and decent insurance. My total lost time at work close to five weeks. Total hospital bills (adding in emergency room, hospitalization, prior visits over original infection, and follow up tests and visits) going to around 10K. I am going to assume this bill will go down as I have made all my deductibles, but still waiting that part out.

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/clostridium-difficile-colitis just in case you want to know about this bad boy.

Antibiotics are the devil. I want to add I still hear parents saying their kid has the flu and they need antibiotics, no one listens when I go, no, flu = virus, not treated with antibiotics.