Experts raises fears as antibiotic-resistant superbugs spread through food supply and drinking water - Polidicks

[URL]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-24/infectious-diseases-experts-raise-alarm-at-growing-superbug-risk/4841740[/URL] [quote]The British chief medical officer has described the superbug threat as ranking with terrorism or global warming. [B]Australia's chief scientist this month warned antibiotic resistance could mean an end to modern medicine as we know it.[/B] Professor Lindsay Grayson, who heads up the infectious diseases unit at Melbourne's Austin Hospital, says there is an urgent need to look at superbugs in the food supply. "The problem with superbugs is like a bushfire. It's running," Professor Graham told 7.30. "And of course we need new fire trucks and new helicopters and all that sort of stuff, but they're going to take years. "We've got to put in the containment lines to stop this." He says food coming in from overseas is of primary concern. "A shipment of prawns from Vietnam was blocked because it had high levels of antibiotic residues in the prawns," he said. "Well, if I was to give you a script for that antibiotic that was in those prawns, I'd have to call Canberra for permission." [B]A recent Senate inquiry found that seafood imported largely from southeast Asia was failing antibiotic tests.[/B] In a test of 341 tonnes of seafood from Vietnam, 5 per cent - or 17 tonnes - were found to have antibiotic residue. ... [B]The enzyme makes healthy bacteria in the gut resistant to all but one old and highly toxic antibiotic, Colistin.[/B] "The data that we now have coming out of some Indian hospitals would suggest that [B]Colistin resistance is starting to rise rapidly [/B]and so we've actually moved from extreme drug resistance to into pan-drug resistance, [B] ie, we've run out completely of antibiotics[/B]," Professor Walsh said.[/quote] Article's a bit sensationalist but it highlights the dangers of the overuse of antibiotic application present today; superbugs are slowly evolving to become resistant to antibiotics. There also would be no way for medicine to keep up with new antibiotics when this fully happens.

Thankfully, there are still the regular ways of killing bacteria, such as extreme heat.

[QUOTE=lintz;41600018]Thankfully, there are still the regular ways of killing bacteria, such as extreme heat.[/QUOTE] They will become resistant to that too

It's not that we're using too much antibiotics, it's that we're not using them properly. Many people when they get sick with some disease and require antibiotics, they only take them until they start feeling better and not the full regimen. Then they relapse because the bugs that resisted the antibiotics are still around. So now you have a generation of bugs with some drug resistance that might be spread around to other people and some of them do the same thing; Get antibiotics and not take them properly. And the cycle continues, you get more and more drug resistant bugs.

[QUOTE=Shreddinger;41600028]They will become resistant to that too[/QUOTE] They'll evolve to resist extreme temperatures above 40 degrees which cause the bacteria's proteins to denature?

The only option is to invent shrink-ray technology and train miniature armies to combat the bacterial menace on the inside.

That's the problem with deregulation, really. Corporations don't really care about preserving the human species - pumping their produce full of antibiotics is cheap and profitable, all the side effects are just "someone else's problem".

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;41600055]The only option is to invent shrink-ray technology and train miniature armies to combat the bacterial menace on the inside.[/QUOTE] Humanity HAS done stupider shit.

[QUOTE=lintz;41600049]They'll evolve to resist extreme temperatures above 40 degrees which cause the bacteria's proteins to denature?[/QUOTE] Of course. There are some bacteria that can withstand temperatures of over 100C, thermophiles and hyperthermophiles. Evolution!

We're already working on applications of molecular interference between bacterial cells to prevent reproduction and the exchanging of genetic material, essentially halting the progress of bacterial resistance against antibiotics. Besides, we have antibiotics out there that have never been used, in the event that every other antibiotic becomes impotent.

[QUOTE=Trumple;41600305]Of course. There are some bacteria that can withstand temperatures of over 100C, thermophiles and hyperthermophiles. Evolution![/QUOTE] But they're not the ones that are contaminating food supplies and making us sick, they're the ones living only in those hostile environments.