Superbugs: The new generation of resistant infections is almost impossible to treat.

[DogPoundPup]

In August, 2000, Dr. Roger Wetherbee, an infectious-disease expert at New York University’s Tisch Hospital, received a disturbing call from the hospital’s microbiology laboratory. At the time, Wetherbee was in charge of handling outbreaks of dangerous microbes in the hospital, and the laboratory had isolated a bacterium called Klebsiella pneumoniae from a patient in an intensive-care unit. “It was literally resistant to every meaningful antibiotic that we had,” Wetherbee recalled recently. The microbe was sensitive only to a drug called colistin, which had been developed decades earlier and largely abandoned as a systemic treatment, because it can severely damage the kidneys. “So we had this report, and I looked at it and said to myself, ‘My God, this is an organism that basically we can’t treat.’ ”
Read entire article @ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/11/080811fa_fact_groopman?currentPage=al

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. All the more reason to build up your immune system

through proper diet, supplementation, and exercise. Then you are less likely to land up in the hospital, which appears to be a place where you can become sick as much as recover from illness.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. yep. Back to basics...much to the chagrin of Big Pharma and the AMA.

[Orrex]

9. Threefer Madness!

[kimmerspixelated]

7. That's right. And one of the other key answers to protection is

Hand-Washing!

Another thing that doesn't help is the paid smear jobs of proven vits, like one I saw a few years ago claiming Vit. C was all hype. When you have writers being paid handsomely by Big Pharma to broadcast inaccurate nutritional info on the mainstream media, it truly is evil in my opinion that they could carry out such what I call threats and get away with it. But prevention is the key. Plus a lot Garlic, Onions, and Oil of Oregano go a long way!

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Add the over-prescribng of antibiotics to the use of them in our food supply, and you have

a major disaster waiting to happen.
Pretty soon there will be no effective drugs that can be used to stop infections.
I am not aware of any effort to stop this self-destruction on the part of the medical establishment, the food suppliers, and certainly not on the part of Big Pharma.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I do wildlife rehab

and a few years ago I had this bug go through a bunch of baby squirrels. The lab grew it out for me as they were dropping like flies and no antibiotic I tried was working. It was resistant to everything.

[greenman3610]

5. People that get these infections often (not always) have these things in common.

they are diabetic, they are smokers, or they have some other
condition that causes poor circulation.
Almost always there is something that handicaps their
immune system.
Occasionally a young healthy person will pick one of these up,
but they generally respond to treatment -
the real horror stories ALMOST always have a very
predictable risk factor involved.
That's why thousands of health care providers work
regularly with some of these patients, taking normal
precautions, and never get sick, although they almost
certainly carry the bugs, MRSA, or whatever.
Important to know that these bugs are now widespread in
communities.

Unfortunately, because most of our health care is based on
protecting above all, the patient's right to remain ignorant and
not change their perspective or life styles, our hospitals are
incubators for more and more virulent forms of these bugs.

[kimmerspixelated]

6. Exactly. One thing I always keep on hand is

Oil of Oregano. They even make it in pill form, called Oregabiotic. There have been many clinical trials proving it to be quite successful against many demons, including the over hyped bird flu, w/o damaging any organs. Naturally, the MSM doesn't like to discuss herbals, because to them they are unproven. Natural Medicine is like believing in witchcraft,(to them) but at least these kinds of meds usually have an antioxidant gift to add to the body, instead of damage!

[Mojorabbit]

10. That is not entirely true

Lots of athletes are picking up mrsa in locker rooms. It is not all about lifestyle.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. I have read several stories about that exact situation

"But there is also an increase in the number of cases, especially in the community," Imperato said. "That has come about because of changes that have occurred in MRSA in the community where, at the biological level, the organism had mutated and can cause serious illness, whereas before it didn't."

Many people carry the MRSA bacteria on their skin. But it has only become a problem since the increased use of antibiotics, which has caused the bacteria to mutate into a drug-resistant form, according to the CDC.

MRSA is resistant to methicillin, which includes several types of penicillin. MRSA infections are treated with newer antibiotics, such as vancomycin, teicoplanin and glycopeptide, although newer strains of the bacteria are becoming resistant to these antibiotics as well. This is one reason health officials warn against the over use of antibiotics, the CDC said.
<skip>
Imperato said young athletes are particularly vulnerable to MRSA infections.

"The reason they are more vulnerable is because playing contact sports, abrasions, lacerations and contusions of the skin are common. And if their skin is colonized with MRSA it then has an easy portal of entry," he said. "In addition, they are sweating, which facilitates penetration of the organism."

Also, they're wearing and sharing equipment on which MRSA can survive, Imperato said. To prevent this form of transmission, he thinks equipment should be sterilized on a regular basis.

Imperato said young athletes should shower after each practice or game, and not share towels. "If one implements simple, sound measures -- particularly in locker rooms, gyms and among players -- it will go a long way to reducing community-acquired MRSA infections," he said.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=84664

[Warpy]

12. I know I always gloved and masked when doing even simple

wound care on diabetics on the off chance I'd been colonized with MRSA.

Unfortunately, they're tarting to track infections to things that should have cleaning between patients, from the bed frames to the blood pressure cuffs. The former is improperly cleaned due to ridiculous staff cutting in all areas, even housekeeping. The latter because such items are very difficult to clean, period, let alone between patients. We do use disposable equipment for known MRSA patients, but not all MRSA patients are known.

The emergence of superbugs is being aided by cost cutting as the focus of health care at an institutional level. The very time they should be adding staff to keep infection under control is the time they're cutting staff to save a few dollars, instead.

We will be dealing with the consequences of health care cost cutting for a very long time. This is only one of them.

[pansypoo53219]

8. its a damned good thing we are feeding antibiotics to chicken and

putting it in everything. make them bugs stronger. the cryptosporidium in milwaukee water could survive in bleach. we have used up our best defense against germs by over using it.
evolution my ass. humans NEVER learn.