Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has already become a blow that will cause great damage, says the deputy director of the center who warns that today there are patients who could have been saved five years ago and today cannot
In an interview with the American public broadcasting network PBS following an episode of the Frontline series that dealt with drug-resistant bacteria, the deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, Dr. Arjun Srinivasan. "We are already in the post-antibiotic era."
As I recall, the topic of bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been the talk of the day among researchers for at least the last decade, the evolutionary explanation is very simple: the antibiotics kill the bacteria, but it is enough for a single bacteria to show resistance, it survives and, in the way of nature, rushes and reproduces itself, until the entire population of bacteria of the same species has become for resistance to the same type of antibiotic. Even worse, there are cases in which bacteria from different species exchange gene segments that make even a species that has not been exposed to antibiotics resistant to it.
The more antibiotics are used and the more we expose the bacteria to antibiotics, the more likely it is that antibiotic resistance will develop. So the more antibiotics we give to humans, to the environment, to the animals, the greater the opportunity for the bacteria to develop resistance. We also know that we overused antibiotics, we put ourselves in the situation we find ourselves in now, the effective antibiotics are disappearing."
We are running out of drugs used to fight diseases that were previously treatable effectively. Today we encounter bacteria, especially in hospitals that are resistant to almost all types of antibiotics available to us (and in some cases to all of them) and we are entering an era that we have long been aware of.
"For a long time, the media has been full of articles about "the end of the antibiotic era?" From now on you can delete the question mark and say "We have reached the end of the antibiotic era. Period.”, says Srinivasan.
We are already here, in the post-antibiotic era. There are patients for whom we do not have a cure, and we are in a situation where we have a patient with an infectious disease, which five years ago could be treated and today we cannot.
As I recall, among those looking for alternatives to antibiotics, is the Nobel Prize winner Prof. Ada Yonat, who of course mobilizes the ribosome to help us. At the Life Sciences Baltics conference held in Vilnius in September 2012, in the presence of a delegation of over a hundred Israeli representatives, Prof. Yonat said that The reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics for economic reasons could set us back decades when it comes to life expectancy.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- The state auditor, May 2103 states: 4,000-6,000 Israelis die every year from infections in hospitals
- Antibiotic resistance in Israel
22 תגובות
Yigal
You are an example that vegetarianism harms intelligence. What is the connection between antibiotics and flu and mad cow??
Yigal - what nonsense. What is the connection between bird flu (virus) and antibiotics? What's more, it's been a long time since antibiotics have been used to make poultry grow (something that only happened in the US and it's been illegal there for a long time)
The phages are back - Intralytics in food safety, Omnilytics in agriculture, Alanco in animals, Nestlé in health and many others. See:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/phages-the-virus-that-cures
Flu is a virus, and not related to antibiotics (at least not directly).
Mad cow is not even a virus (and certainly not a bacterium). - and then not related either.
80% of the antibiotics produced in the world go to euthanize animals in industrial farms. It has already brought us bird flu, swine flu and mad cow. It also continues on to the meat and milk and enters our body, people eat meat and dairy products 3-4-5 times a day and this is like taking a dose of antibiotics with every meal. This is where all the resistant bacteria come from. We brought it on ourselves. Keep eating meat and drinking milk and we'll see where we end up...
IBM has developed micro robots that are attracted to the electric charge of pathogenic bacteria. Perhaps this is an opportunity to promote a flu vaccine.
I know of 3 channels for dealing with bacterial resistance to antibiotics, two of which were mentioned in the responses to the article and they are the allicin compound and bacteriophages, the third is antimicrobial peptides and currently peptides are considered one of the cheapest options for developing new antibiotics that are difficult for bacteria to adapt to. In my opinion, these three options should be researched and developed simultaneously, first using phages in order to provide an immediate response to specific bacteria that are already resistant to antibiotics, and at the same time intensive research on the possibility of using allicin and peptides as antibiotics that are resistant to a wide range of bacteria, difficult to adapt by them, and developing drugs based on about the studies.
We do not lack ways of dealing with it. The question is how do you get someone to invest the sums of money needed for research on such a scale? Maybe a Facebook group to raise awareness of the matter and call for government intervention?
In my opinion, a way that could work is a government incentive program for the pharmaceutical companies for the development and production of new generation anti-bacterial drugs that they will not be able to or will find it very difficult to adapt to. When I think about it, the fairest place to invest taxpayers' money is in the long-term health of the current generation and those who follow him.
Peter:
I am also in favor of spreading knowledge about the method, but I am against unfounded defamation and in my opinion a statement of the type you made regarding the CDC is unfounded defamation.
You may think so, but as long as you don't have evidence that proves it, I don't think it's decent to express yourself the way you did (what's more, as you mentioned yourself - the organization itself noticed that antibiotics are losing their power and is not ashamed to advertise it. This kind of advertising goes against the goal you attribute to it)
Michael,
As far as I know, the pharmaceutical lobby in the US has a lot of weight on the opinion of the decision makers. This is the main reason that it will be difficult to find start-up companies and even research groups that deal with the application of bacteriophage in the USA. For this reason I would not directly wave the research done at the Georgian Institute.
In any case, I do not try to advertise or market this method, but only bring up another side in dealing with bacterial infections, which many do not know was discovered even before the antibiotics by Fleming.
Peter:
Still, sentences like "It seems that despite the warning statements, bodies like the American CDC have a strong desire to maintain the power of the companies that develop antibiotics, despite the fact of the end of the era statements" seem to me to be a hasty jump to unfounded and even wrong conclusions.
I also assume that in the Georgian Institute I will not find information about the studies conducted in the USA and their conclusions.
Michael,
I come from the field of microbiology and never jump to any conclusion prematurely. There are a number of reasons (some historical, some economic, etc.) why we don't hear enough about the use of bacteriophages in the clinic these days. I thank you for the link to Wikipedia that you included, but I would not base all my arguments on it. I strongly recommend visiting the website of the Giorgi Eliaba Institute, one of the main and prominent institutes for research and application in the field, and reading a few of the articles they offer:
http://www.eliava-institute.org/
And most importantly, let's be healthy 🙂
By the way, AR:
It won't hurt you to read the articles about Zemlweiss that were published on the knowledge website:
https://www.hayadan.org.il/ignaz-semmelweis-part-1-0402088/
https://www.hayadan.org.il/ignaz-semmelweis-part-2-0502088/
Peter:
I would not jump to such conclusions.
If you look at the table I gave above you will find that Russia is not in a good place either.
The subject of bacteriophage treatment is probably in diapers everywhere and the only difference is that in the West they admit it.
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage
AR:
It turns out that like the paper - the Internet also tolerates everything.
Although it is true that controlled exposure to allergens and other disease agents may be beneficial, your rejection of the introduction is simply foolish.
When the doctors say that there are patients who five years ago could have been saved (and today no longer), one must first understand that they needed saving and that without the antibiotics they would have died.
If you look at the table Life expectancy by country You will be able to see how far your words are from reality.
Dear AR!
After all, life in India is not something! It is still better to take certain sterile measures.
Yehuda
A hospital today is like a leper colony in the past. There is no way that a sane person is hospitalized on his own accord
I'd rather die sick and free than locked up in quarantine..
A strong immune system is the key to everything - that's why controlled exposure and lack of sterility is important (and hypocritical people don't understand - a person in a developed world will never have an immune system like a child who drinks from the Ganges but lives in an equally dangerous sterile environment)
my father
Fresh garlic repels humans too, not just bacteria...
Well, then going back to the days of evolution?
There is a difference between referring to a single scientific study, which has a lot more development after it, and all kinds of charlatans who sell nonsense in health food stores, you quickly skipped over these steps. If it was a drug, a pharmaceutical company would have already conducted an orderly study on it, with all the stages of clinical trials. Just for example, there are countless charlatans who claim that their medicine contains stem cells, and some of them even rely on the ignorance of the general public and say that they have stem cells of plant origin, so I would not rely on companies of this type to improve my health.
In principle, natural product companies are not known to conduct controlled studies. If anything, then why not just go to the market and buy fresh garlic?
There is also good news
Pure allicin, the active ingredient in garlic works against all resistant bacteria (MRSA)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15250668
Its trade name is Allimax
You can order it from health food stores in the US. I would not have entered the hospital today without it.
Even if we ignore for a moment the fact that the development of antibiotics has reached a kind of "saturation", the development of new antibiotics takes a very long time and the cost is very high. Claims similar to those made here in the article by the CDC are made by various health organizations around the world and for some reason still prefer to ignore the logical substitute - treatment using bacteriophages. Many countries from the former Eastern Bloc (Belarus, Russia, Georgia...) combine in their treatments the administration of specific bacteriophages per bacteria and the results prove themselves in many cases (a matter of experience and research that has continued continuously since 1930).
It seems that despite the warning statements, bodies like the US CDC have a strong desire to maintain the power of the companies that develop antibiotics, despite the fact of the end-of-the-era statements.
It is worthwhile and proper for countries to support research for the development of antibiotics
New before it's too late.