We're fucked. Resistance to last-resort antibiotic has now spread across globe

[Richard Hakluyt]

I can't recall the first time I heard about the misuse of antibiotics in raising livestock, must be well over 20 years ago though; nothing was done of course, which was an obvioyus mistake then and now.

[viper37]

Unfortunately, there are serious issues that do get glossed over.  That can no longer be said about global warming but it can still be said about this issue.  As one of the small fraction of the population that does depend on antibiotics working I have to say this is a big concern for me personally.  But also for the much larger percentage of the population who do not have a chronic medical condition but who will from time to time have an infection that requires antibiotics this wont be a major issue until it is too late.

Doctors have been calling for banning wide use of antibiotics for livestock for a long time now.  Its really too bad that too many people think that this isn't a serious issue and that it is only a bad thing that has befallen some small fraction of the world's 7.3bn people.

I'm quoting you, bu it ain't for you specifically.

I'm wondering if the opposite can happen.  Meaning, once antibiotic resistance has settled in a bacteria, can it be undone?  If we change our ways, stop feeding antiobitics to animals and give it to people with a simple cold, could we see these bacterias losing this gene over time?  (I know nothing about the subject, forgive me if I sound stupid)

[dps]

Unfortunately, there are serious issues that do get glossed over.  That can no longer be said about global warming but it can still be said about this issue.  As one of the small fraction of the population that does depend on antibiotics working I have to say this is a big concern for me personally.  But also for the much larger percentage of the population who do not have a chronic medical condition but who will from time to time have an infection that requires antibiotics this wont be a major issue until it is too late.

Doctors have been calling for banning wide use of antibiotics for livestock for a long time now.  Its really too bad that too many people think that this isn't a serious issue and that it is only a bad thing that has befallen some small fraction of the world's 7.3bn people.

I'm quoting you, bu it ain't for you specifically.

I'm wondering if the opposite can happen.  Meaning, once antibiotic resistance has settled in a bacteria, can it be undone?  If we change our ways, stop feeding antiobitics to animals and give it to people with a simple cold, could we see these bacterias losing this gene over time?  (I know nothing about the subject, forgive me if I sound stupid)

Well, if the gene doesn't give any survival advantage to the bacteria, then it might die out.  But we're talking about a specific gene that gives the bacteria a resistance to a specific antibiotic.  The general problem will probably never go away--for any new antibiotics we develop, some bacteria will eventually develop resistance to it, and natural selection will then the strain that carries that mutation will be favored by natural selection as long as that particular antibiotic is part of the bacteria's environment.  All else being equal, the more widely an antibiotic is used, the quicker a strain of germs resistant to that drug will develop and spread.

[Berkut]

There was a podcast on this a while back, and some researchers where trying to re-create this recipe to treat eye infections that came out of a medieval medical text.

Lots of hocus pocus involved of course, and a bunch of stuff that didn't really appear to make much sense.

But the odd thing it...it worked. The soup/mess the recipe created effectively killed some 99+% of the stapholococus bacteria in a lab.

They speculated that perhaps this was an early "antibiotic", but that it fell out of use once staph grew a resistance to it, hence the knowledge faded away...but after a few thousands of bacterial generations, that resistance is now gone, and hence it works again.

They were going to follow up with more analysis of the concoction to try to localize that active ingredient.

But the advantage we do have is that bacteria has a very fast generational cycle time (well, that is an advantage and disadvantage, of course). That means that while they can quickly develop resistance, that resistance would likely go away relatively quickly as well...if we could somehow stop using the particular class of anti-biotic.

on the other hand, some experts in the field suspect that it may very well be the case that the last several decades of human ability to decisively treat bacterial infections might be just a blip in human history, and long term we will go back to lots of people dying from these...

[dps]

some experts in the field suspect that it may very well be the case that the last several decades of human ability to decisively treat bacterial infections might be just a blip in human history, and long term we will go back to lots of people dying from these...

OTOH, even if they're correct, that puts a bit of perspective on the issue--we managed to survive as a species for thousands of years without antibiotics.

[crazy canuck]

some experts in the field suspect that it may very well be the case that the last several decades of human ability to decisively treat bacterial infections might be just a blip in human history, and long term we will go back to lots of people dying from these...

OTOH, even if they're correct, that puts a bit of perspective on the issue--we managed to survive as a species for thousands of years without antibiotics.

In dramatically smaller numbers and for dramatically shorter periods of time with a dramatically higher mortality rate.  So yes, it does provide a great deal of perspective.

[alfred russel]

But the advantage we do have is that bacteria has a very fast generational cycle time (well, that is an advantage and disadvantage, of course). That means that while they can quickly develop resistance, that resistance would likely go away relatively quickly as well...if we could somehow stop using the particular class of anti-biotic.

Probably doctors will prescribe cocktails of antibiotics that each are potentially effective, diminishing the chance resistance will go away.

[DGuller]

some experts in the field suspect that it may very well be the case that the last several decades of human ability to decisively treat bacterial infections might be just a blip in human history, and long term we will go back to lots of people dying from these...

OTOH, even if they're correct, that puts a bit of perspective on the issue--we managed to survive as a species for thousands of years without antibiotics.

We wouldn't be talking about it if we hadn't, would we?  Millions of years of survival can be canceled out by one moment of non-survival.

[alfred russel]

In dramatically smaller numbers and for dramatically shorter periods of time with a dramatically higher mortality rate.  So yes, it does provide a great deal of perspective.

The increases in population and longevity are more to do with improved nutrition and public health initiatives like sanitation than antibiotics.

[alfred russel]

on the other hand, some experts in the field suspect that it may very well be the case that the last several decades of human ability to decisively treat bacterial infections might be just a blip in human history, and long term we will go back to lots of people dying from these...

It seems more likely that in the not to distant future we will have much more sophisticated means to target bacterial infections through newly developed medicines. We understand bacterial chemistry and genetics quite well. If we are talking about the timeline of human history scale, and assuming we aren't all bathed in nuclear fire before then, I have to think we will be able to use that knowledge to attack infections much better than now.

[Razgovory]

Thanks china

I didn't know you were South African.

[Eddie Teach]

We wouldn't be talking about it if we hadn't, would we?  Millions of years of survival can be canceled out by one moment of non-survival.

Enough about grumbler.

When you're talking about this species, it's more like seven billion moments of non-survival, within a fairly short time span. Drug-resistant bacteria still have the problem that killing their host makes it harder to spread. And there's the odd survivor or person who's immune to the disease.

[Scipio]

I'm ready to go, sitting on the shitter like Elvis. Who's with me?

[HVC]

We can go back to testing silver as a antimicrobial. They where making advances before penicillin became the go to antibiotic.

[dps]

I'm ready to go, sitting on the shitter like Elvis. Who's with me?

Dude, nobody here wants to sit on the shitter with you.