The Unstoppable Epidemic Could Start in China

[yugocrosrb95]

Thank you China!

 

[Cossack25A1]

Because some members here will look for an article that is similar to the topic in the video, I posted this article. After this, no more updates.

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New superbug in China threatens to defeat last-resort antibiotics
By Helen Branswell
November 18, 2015

Experts have been warning for a while that the bell is tolling for the end of the antibiotic era, presaging a time when infections won’t be treatable with the drugs that have changed modern medicine. On Wednesday, that ominous knell got a little bit louder.
Chinese and British scientists reported that they have found a strain of Escherichia coli that is resistant to colistin, the antibiotic of last resort for gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli. The resistant bacteria were found in pigs, raw pork meat, and in a small number of people in China.

It’s not the first time colistin resistance has been spotted, but this time the phenomenon comes with a nasty twist. The resistance is conferred by a gene found on a plasmid, a portable piece of DNA. That’s alarming because plasmids can both transfer within a family of bugs and to other families of bacteria as well.

If the resistance spreads, it will seriously limit the treatment options available to doctors facing antibiotic-resistant infections, said Dr. Jean Patel, acting director of the office of antimicrobial resistance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Patel was not involved in the study.

The scientists — from the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, the China Agricultural University in Beijing, and other institutions — called the resistance gene mcr-1. Reporting in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, they described the emergence of mcr-1 as “the breach of the last group of antibiotics” by plasmid-mediated resistance.

The mcr-1 gene can move among E. coli bacteria, the scientists reported. But it can also go into other bacteria — Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa — and give those bugs the capacity to resist colistin, too.

A member of the polymyxin class of antibiotics, colistin is an old drug that was rarely used for decades because there were other antibiotic options that have fewer side effects.

But as antibiotic resistance has increased, the drug has become a critical part of the armamentarium; in 2012 the World Health Organization designated it as critically important for human medicine.

Experts have insisted it should be preserved for people and should not be employed in agricultural operations, where vast quantities of antibiotics are fed to animals as growth promoters. And yet, in China, the drug is used more in animal production than it is on people, said Timothy Walsh, a medical microbiologist from Cardiff University in Wales, and one of the authors of this paper.

“We needed to have definitive borders between antibiotics that are used in human medicine and those that are used in the veterinary sector,” said Walsh, who was also involved in the discovery of another dangerous plasmid-mediated resistance gene, NDM-1. “That mantra should be universal and strictly adhered to.”

Walsh told STAT in an interview that he and his co-authors will meet next week with government officials to try to persuade China to ban agricultural use of colistin.

After finding the mcr-1 gene in one pig, the authors of the new study conducted a survey, finding the gene in 166 of 804 pigs tested at slaughterhouses and in 78 of 523 samples of raw meat. They also found it in E. coli bacteria isolated from a small number of hospitalized people in China; it was present in 1 percent of 1,322 samples they tested.

Dr. Amesh Adalja is a Pittsburgh-based infectious diseases physician who has seen one of his patients die because of a completely drug-resistant lung infection. He thinks doctors will have to get used to that sense of helplessness going forward. Adalja, a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said the plasmid-mediated nature of mcr-1 is “particularly scary” because of the potential for spread.

But the CDC’s Patel cautioned that just because something has the potential to spread doesn’t always mean that it will. She noted that a few years ago, Staphylococcus aureus strains emerged that were resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. In that case, too, the resistance was plasmid-mediated. Vancomycin is a mainstay in the treatment of staph infections, which are among the most common infections around. The discovery led to dire predictions. And they proved to be wrong.

“That’s our classic example where we were very, very concerned and then it didn’t spread,” said Patel. Nonetheless, she noted, the CDC will need to ramp up surveillance for mcr-1.

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Antibiotic under threat, as new superbug emerges in China
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[initial_d]

This is why moslem don't eat pork, they are filthy animal full of nasty germ that cause deadly decceased

 

[Beast]

China haters get banned. Good!

 

[William Hung]

Thanks for taking us back to the middle age where a small bacterial infection can get you killed!!!!

 

[oprih]

At least actions are being done to stop troll epidemic in pdf with the banning of the thread starter.

 

[kankan326]

This is why moslem don't eat pork, they are filthy animal full of nasty germ that cause deadly decceased

Dude, Chinese have been eating pork for thousands years. Statistically say we are much more successful than Muslims in almost every field.

 

[Amember]

Dude, Chinese have been eating pork for thousands years. Statistically say we are much more successful than Muslims in almost every field.

Exactly, very good point.

 

[Kyle Sun]

I love stewed pork with sauce

 

[tranquilium]

Thanks for taking us back to the middle age where a small bacterial infection can get you killed!!!!

Nah, even if anti-biotics fail, the improved nutrient intake in the modern society will mean a much stronger immune system and more resilience once infected.

This is why moslem don't eat pork, they are filthy animal full of nasty germ that cause deadly decceased

This is somewhat true. Historically in middle east regions, pigs are raised towns with low hygiene standards (from modern perspective) and unlike sheeps, cows and chickens, pigs are way less fussy on what to eat and consume quite a lot of unsanitary things, hence why not eating pork improves health standards back in the day. The same thing does not apply to modern day though. Pigs these days are raised in much healthier environment.

 

[Bombermanx1]

This is why moslem don't eat pork, they are filthy animal full of nasty germ that cause deadly decceased

E.coli is found everywhere not only in Pork. Just letting you know.

 

[Pulsar]

China haters get banned. Good!

And Indian haters get 'thanks'!

 

[initial_d]

[QUOTE="kankan326, post: 8015357, memswiChinese have been eating pork for thousands years. Statistically say we are much more successful than Muslims in almost every field.[/QUOTE]
Yeah rite, thats why you started the swine flu pandemic

 

[William Hung]

Nah, even if anti-biotics fail, the improved nutrient intake in the modern society will mean a much stronger immune system and more resilience once infected.

A strong immune system cannot always overcome every baterial infections. Anti-biotic/Penicillin is still a crucial medication, our natural immune system can only fight against bateria to a certain extent. Are you telling me that a modern/affluent country can do without antibiotics? I don’t think so. Anyway, antibiotics are doomed. It’s not just China causing the problem, but its the general developing world who have contributed to this problem. The governments in developing countries don’t do a good job at regulating antibiotic usage, not informing the low IQ ignorant population about the seriousness of this issue. Third world ignorant people often buy anti-biotics over the counter for a quick fix. Its like when I opened the toxoplamosis thread warning about its rise, a bunch of low IQ ignorant cat lovers with third world mentality didn’t believe in it and asked the mod to lock the thread. Its those type of ignorant third world mentality that is causing the demise of antibiotics.


How Lethal Bacteria Evolve to Survive

Earlier this year, Dr. Neil Fishman faced a tough decision. A 54-year-old man fell off his roof while doing housework, injuring his leg. Six months later, bacteria resistant to most antibiotics had infected the wound. Fishman, associate chief medical officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, saw few choices: use an old, toxic antibiotic that didn’t work well and would destroy the patient’s kidneys, or amputate his leg.

“It’s scary to me that in 2014 those are the only two options to give him,” Fishman, who is also chair of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s Education & Research Foundation, told Healthline.

The patient had his leg amputated, thus saving his life. That case is anything but isolated. Fishman has been working on antibiotic resistance since the early 1990s, and has watched along with other infectious disease as deadly bacteria have grown stronger, antibiotic use has increased, and new antibiotic discovery has fallen to an all-time low.

It has been 86 years since the first antibiotic was discovered. Experts like Fishman can cite reams of scientific evidence that show antibiotics are not as safe as they were once thought to be, and that widespread, indiscriminate antibiotic use triggers antibiotic resistance and other complications.

“They’re the only drug where administration to one patient can affect another person,” Fishman said.

An Emerging Epidemic in the 21st Century

The discovery of antibiotics made all medical procedures less risky, but they are slowly losing their effectiveness.

Bacteria are everywhere. And in most cases, that’s a good thing. Those tiny, single-celled organisms are keeping you alive by helping you digest your meals and aiding your body in fighting off infection and disease. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are isolating and mapping the genes of all these bacteria, collectively called the human microbiome.

While humans simply can’t exist without the help of bacteria, many strains are deadly and have been the source of billions of deaths throughout history.

Humans were given a leg up when Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria under a microscope in 1676, and one better when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. Those discoveries have led to the development of dozens of classes of antibiotics.

These drugs have been so crucial for so long that we’ve nearly forgotten what it’s like when common medical problems become life-or-death situations, though the signs of a reversal have been there all along.

Those who have been studying the issue, from top U.S. government infectious-disease scientists to doctors fighting to save their patients' lives, say we need to quit our old habits and get with the new science. According to the World Health Organization, we aren't far from a world where our best defenses against bacteria are rendered useless.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the only microbiologist in Congress, has repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to change the way America uses antibiotics since 2007.

“People aren’t going to be able to have their teeth fixed, or their hip replaced, if we don’t stop this. All of the new medicine, all of the new surgeries, the basis of that being successful is antibiotic use,” she told Healthline. “We’re talking about strep throat being fatal. That’s the scariest thing.”

 

[Sanchez]

@initial_d

"swine flu" was originally called as Spanish flu. Hepatitis B was also spread by pigs raised on Spanish boats.