Bacteria Are Winning the Battle

As bacteria--including a new super bug--become resistant to antibiotics, doctors worldwide are beginning to worry that the age of antibiotics is coming to an end. Little more than a half-century ago it was not uncommon to die from infections related to tuberculosis, pneumonia or minor surgeries like appendix removal. With the advancements of modern medicine and the creation of antibiotics infectious diseases became treatable and our lifespans have extended. When common antibiotics can no longer fight off bacteria, and transplant surgeries become a thing of the past, modern medicine may need more than a face-lift to stay on top.

Yet pharmaceutical companies have little motivation to put the effort required into new pills and research when there is less profit to be made from a drug taken for a week to fight an infection versus a pill taken everyday for the rest of someone's life.

Although the medical establishment has warned against the over-use of antibiotics for viral infections, and encouraged a renaissance in hand washing and clean hygiene to slow the spread of bacteria, it still seems that, "In the battle for survival of the fittest between human beings and bacteria, just now it looks as though the best we are going to get is a draw - if we are lucky."

Image: "Diet Pills" by Tacit Requiem on Flickr, courtesy of Creative Commons.

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Comments

Fixers, ain't we?

Submitted by zimij on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 20:58.

Some's makin' a mess 'n' some's a cleanin'. It seems intelligence follows hungry fools, thriving on the fix. Paul Stamets might have a clue for this biof#k.

Freetards have more hope than feartards-postbio loco

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Ounce of Prevention

Submitted by Pippalayana on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 10:19.

Maybe, just maybe, this is a wake up call ... {we just keep hitting the snooze button unable to gain the motivation to "wake up"} ... to live a more toxic free life.

Bacteria does not come from nowhere.

For every high-tech machination, there is a cesspool left behind somewhere.

The more natural one lives ... {inner and outer environments} ... the less pathogens, and the stronger the immune system

Norway is solving the MRSA problem

Submitted by Athena_Sword on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 12:15.

The over-use of antibiotics is the main problem. Norway adopted a strict policy about the use of antibiotics. Here's an excerpt from an article and a link to the full article: " Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway’s public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics. Now a spate of new studies from around the world proves that Norway’s model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths – 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS – are unnecessary." http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/jan/03/norways-mrsa-solution/ But in the U.S. it's not just the over-administration of antibiotics to people, the food animal industry pumps them into animal feed.

Your point is well taken...

Submitted by cdcaleo on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 22:17.

but I hope you realize that bacteria have existed on this earth for billions of years, and there's a good chance they will still be here long after we are gone. Exclusively living a "clean" life will not stop bacteria. In fact, prior to the widespread use of antibiotics, infectious disease is what kept world population in check. And if the trends that this article predicts continue...bacteria might once again put human populations in check, radically reducing our numbers. I'm not saying it's a good thing...but this trend, along with "peak oil", might put an end to industrial civilization as we know it.

Field of Friendlies

Submitted by Pippalayana on Sat, 08/21/2010 - 10:25.

Yes, bacteria has always been around, but not in the quantities and aggressive qualities / versions of today. Like everything else bacteria has purpose. It helps clean up mess, actually purifying the environment. The less mess we are making, the less bacteria proliferates. If we act outside of universal context, then bacteria will take us out of the picture .. as we have now, ourselves, become the mess that needs to be cleaned up. This is not an existential problem .. but a self-created one. The more secular humanism separates it's self from the rest of our indigenous sensibilities the more we become subject to the compromise of our own harmonic defense immunities. Insect infestation on small organic farms, integrated with natural wooded settings never becomes excessive. In large commercial farming ventures insects become almost plague like ... as there is no integral land mass to share with them .. just mega clear cut fields of "single" crops {no varigated mixtures} This same principle applies to bacteria, and pathogens.

Close to home

Submitted by Lightning Hawk on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 15:12.

A friend of mine from high school days died recently from complications of a MRSA infection.

To be sure, doctors have overprescribed antibiotics but personally I blame the meat industry. Pumping antibiotics into cattle and chickens is asking for trouble. This practice is very common in the U.S.

PEDANTRY ALERT: The title is incorrect. It should read "Bacteria ARE Winning the Battle." Bacteria is plural. The singular of bacteria is bacterium.

Thanks!

Submitted by Marisa Smith on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 17:06.

Thanks, Lightening, for catching my typo! For a writer, the proper use of language isn't always my strongest suit...

& I'm sorry to hear about your friend's untimely death.

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