[dolanbaker]

This has been a long term worry of mine, and now it looks like it may actually become a reality.
All we need now is some group of nutters to isolate this bacteria, synthesise it with a common bacterial infectious disease and release it into the "wild".

Could have the potential of decimating the world's population.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34857015
The world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed.

They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort - colistin - in patients and livestock in China.

They said that resistance would spread around the world and raised the spectre of untreatable infections.

It is likely resistance emerged after colistin was overused in farm animals.

Bacteria becoming completely resistant to treatment - also known as the antibiotic apocalypse - could plunge medicine back into the dark ages.

[Newfie]

That could be a cure for over shoot.

Are we the patient or the bug?

A matter of perspective.

[GHung]

Nature deals with overshoot in many ways. Too bad our cleverness isn't tempered with wisdom and moderation in all things......

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed.

They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort - colistin - in patients and livestock in China.

They said that resistance would spread around the world and raised the spectre of untreatable infections.

It is likely resistance emerged after colistin was overused in farm animals.

Bacteria becoming completely resistant to treatment - also known as the antibiotic apocalypse - could plunge medicine back into the dark ages.

Common infections would kill once again, while surgery and cancer therapies, which are reliant on antibiotics, would be under threat.

Key players

Chinese scientists identified a new mutation, dubbed the MCR-1 gene, that prevented colistin from killing bacteria.

The report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases showed resistance in a fifth of animals tested, 15% of raw meat samples and in 16 patients.

[Tanada]

The scary thing to me is, Doctors have horribly over prescribed antibiotics and patients have frequently failed to follow directions when taking them. Add in that unmetabolised antibiotics enter the waste stream and encourage resistance in the bacteria of all types in the sewage treatment system.

Everything from Heliobactor Pylori (ulcer causing bacteria) to Diphtheria that used to kill one in ten children are becoming antibiotic resistant. That means you can either get vaccinated, which many people oppose, or risk a constant death rate from those bacterial infections that will soon be completely resistant to external treatment. Of course vaccines work because they prime your bodies immune system, and many people managed to fight off the infections even without external aid, but ultimately it will be back to you verses the entire world of millions of types of bacteria. Most have little effect or counter balance each other, but some are very bad no matter how you slice it. Like Scarlett Fever. Or Bacterial Pneumonia. Staphylococcus. E. Coli. Salmonella. Meningitis.

[Subjectivist]

Great, as far as I know nobody has developed vaccines for most of those diseases because they have assumed antibiotics made vaccines redundant. How long will it take to develop several hundred new vaccines and convince the public to accept them?

[Newfie]

My understanding is that in India many of our prescription antibiotics are available over the counter and are widely miss used. Is that true?

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'M')y understanding is that in India many of our prescription antibiotics are available over the counter and are widely miss used. Is that true?

[Newfie]

Ah, so it is, thanks.

[SeaGypsy]

This was the case all over Asia until very recently. I self prescribed some Amoxyclav (hospital grade antibiotic) a few years ago from a chemist in the Philippines. A year or so later the same chemist died from a resistance encephalitic bacteria, dead a day after she showed signs of unwellness. Later on it came out that she had been daily dosing Amoxyclav for a few years, as a preventative- obviously with no concept of how this affects all the other bugs in our bodies. She learned this trick from the local prostitutes. Do the math.

In the last year or so all ASEAN countries have introduced prescription only for antibiotics- some improvement.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'T')his was the case all over Asia until very recently. I self prescribed some Amoxyclav (hospital grade antibiotic) a few years ago from a chemist in the Philippines. A year or so later the same chemist died from a resistance encephalitic bacteria, dead a day after she showed signs of unwellness. Later on it came out that she had been daily dosing Amoxyclav for a few years, as a preventative- obviously with no concept of how this affects all the other bugs in our bodies. She learned this trick from the local prostitutes. Do the math.

In the last year or so all ASEAN countries have introduced prescription only for antibiotics- some improvement.

[ritter]

Kind of an interesting twist on the Tragedy of the Commons. We continue to do what is best for us individually, neglecting the whole. Then the whole becomes so rotten, it no longer supports the individual. Only then do we begin to see the errors of our ways. Maybe.

I've been aware of this for 20 years, since reading Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ritter', 'K')ind of an interesting twist on the Tragedy of the Commons. We continue to do what is best for us individually, neglecting the whole. Then the whole becomes so rotten, it no longer supports the individual. Only then do we begin to see the errors of our ways. Maybe.

I've been aware of this for 20 years, since reading Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague.

[AdTheNad]

Everyone is talking about over use by humans, which is clearly very bad, but I want to know why a drug of last resort is being given to farm animals.

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdTheNad', 'E')veryone is talking about over use by humans, which is clearly very bad, but I want to know why a drug of last resort is being given to farm animals.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'T')he scary thing to me is, Doctors have horribly over prescribed antibiotics and patients have frequently failed to follow directions when taking them. Add in that unmetabolised antibiotics enter the waste stream and encourage resistance in the bacteria of all types in the sewage treatment system.

[vox_mundi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', '.'). I don't know that I'm very convinced about the waste water side, but the other two parts are undeniably true, and more than sufficient to put an end to our victory over infectious bacteria.

[onlooker]

http://news.health.com/2015/12/04/phant ... ook_health
This link is to one particular one dubbed the "Phantom Menace" because it is not easily detected. This is part of the ongoing microscopic war that mankind is waging with bacteria and viruses. One particular sentence caught my eye
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his is a tricky drug-resistant bacteria, and it isn’t easily found,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden told the Post. “What we’re seeing is an assault by the microbes on the last bastion of antibiotics.”

[onlooker]

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... tic-misuse
‘Almost too late’: fears of global superbug crisis in wake of antibiotic misuse
Antibiotic Research UK director says chances of salvaging most important drugs are 50-50 after resistant bacteria found in pigs and humans in England and WalesTuesday 22 December

“It is feared the crisis could further penetrate Europe as displaced migrants enter from a war-torn Middle East, where countries such as Syria have increasing levels of antibiotic resistance.

Dr Brown told said: “It is almost too late. We needed to start research 10 years ago and we still have no global monitoring system in place.”

“The issue is people have tried to find new antibiotics but it is totally failing – there has been no new chemical class of drug to treat gram-negative infections for more than 40 years.

“I think we have got a 50-50 chance of salvaging the most important antibiotics but we need to stop agriculture from ruining it again.”

[Newfie]

Maybe you should repost this in the "mass die off thread"?

Seems it could be related.

[onlooker]

True Newfie, our most formidable foe those microscopic critters are making a comeback in a big way and appear poised to take the guise of the Overshoot Predator.