Antibiotic-resistant staph infections killing more Americans than AIDs

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by maxg, Oct 17, 2007.

  1. maxg Registered Senior Member

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    710
    From the Washington Post article:
    The full JAMA article is available online:
    http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/298/15/1763

    Since the majority of infections are occurring in healthcare settings, it does give one even more reason to avoid hospitals and doctor's offices.

    So how worried should we be?
     
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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I saw that article too. Pretty scary. We're going to have to devise new ways of defeating bacteria. They're adapting faster than we can create antibiotics.
     
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  5. Learned Hand Registered Senior Member

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    I have a family member who presently has it. Terrible, terrible stuff. It's even resistant to the strongest antibiotic, methicillin. Scary -- you bet.

    You know that anti-bacterial solution in many office buildings these days that kill 99.99 % of bacteria? Well, MRSA is in that 0.01% unaffected. From what I read, it usually occurs on the skin, causing boils/rashes. If it gets systemic, you're in the hospital for awhile.
     
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  7. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    A couple days ago I had a patient named Mirza. "Did you know you're named after a disease?" I asked. "Which one?" he said. "Methacillin Resistant Staph Aureus" I told him. He wasn't too impressed. Anyway, a couple hours later I find out my sister has MRSA.
     
  8. Roman Banned Banned

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    11,560
    I blame doctors and the over prescription of antibiotics.
    Oh well, I guess a free market knows best....
     
  9. fo3 acdcrocks Registered Senior Member

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    Free market is kind of like evolution, isn't it? It tends to find the best solutions to given problems, but from time to time can lead to dead ends and positive feedback loops that run out of control in the end.
     
  10. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    I blame scientists for calling it anti-biotics.
     
  11. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    I see Mom's goop their kids up in that alcohol gel all the time. How are they supposed to build up resistance to anything?
     
  12. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    contact with cows is allegedly very good for avoiding allergies.
     
  13. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    Hmm, what was the last big, sensational, medical scare? And what ever happened to it?

    Bird flu? Weren't we all supposed to have died by now?

    And the "sick cow" disease? Weren't we all supposed to have died by now?

    Baron Max
     
  14. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    33,264
    How about that new "Baron Max" syndrom disease? I hear its spreading like wildfire!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  15. fo3 acdcrocks Registered Senior Member

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    552
    If the "big, sensational, medical scares" work as they are intended to, they will prevent the proposed scenario from happening, as that is the whole point in publishing such issues so widely.
    Would you rather hear about potential dangers that will never be realized due to the warning, or would you rather die in a pandemic you've never even heard of, and no-one has tried to prevent?
    Yes, there is room for a reasonable amount of false-positives, but from where I see it, if all that prevents a single "negative", it is worth it.
     
  16. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    23,053
    Well, people here in Dallas are scared to send their kids to school. Is that one of the desired effects of the scare tactics? And let's face facts, people who are around lots of other people, like in schools, etc., are much more likely to get any of those diseases. So with the scare tactics, the parents are justified.

    And also, don't forget that this disease has already killed thousands of people, maybe more that we don't even konw about. So shouldn't the scare have been earlier when the first cases were diagnosed?

    Baron Max
     
  17. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    So which is it - too many early scares, or not scared soon enough?

    This problem has been on the radar of despised radical critics of the US government for a very long time - since Reagan, for sure, whose cavalier attitude toward government oversight agencies established a pattern of negligence only temporarily and partially ameliorated under Clinton's embattled administration.

    The roots of the current upsurge lie not only in faith based appointments to federal scientific oversight agencies and Christian fundie guidance in the treatment of AIDS, but such matters as the privatisation ideology governing veterans' hospitals and the Iraq war (starting more than three years ago, there has been a spike in this stuff from the hospitals treating wounded soldiers, and it seems to have spread to the US mainland) and the simplistic ideology currently guiding socialized medical care.

    Antibiotic resistance is a federal governmental problem. It cannot be handled by a "free market", and it cannot be handled at any level smaller than a controlled border and the boundaries of a medical treatment system. It involves regulation and oversight not only of drug employment in medical care, but such matters as animal feed and veterinary practices nationwide.

    It involves preventing, by force, capitalist enterprises and hardworking entreprenuers and willing consumers from garnering short term profits and benefits for themselves at the expense of long term risk - not certain cost, jsut risk - for many others.
     
  18. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    It was AIDS and it's still around. It's ravaging much of the world. It looks like circumcision is going to the be key to turning it around in Africa.
    Lyme disease and West Nile are still major problems here in the Mid-Atlantic region, but by making people aware of them through public information campaigns, they've been prevented from becoming crises. Yes you can carp about hyperbole, but when you've got a population that's been made insenstitive to strong messages by both corporate advertising and political bullshit, you do have to scare people half to death to get their attention. In any case, antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus is right now killing more people than AIDS and it's not in a class with mad cow disease or bird flu. It's not hyperbole.

    But to put it into perspective, it's killing roughly the same number of Americans as drunk drivers, and none of us gives them a second thought even though we know all their names. On the other hand it's killing thirty or forty times as many Americans per year as terrorists, and we're turning the country upside-down and shredding the Constitution over that risk. As I have said many times, Americans are absolute ignoramuses when it comes to risk analysis and management.
     
  19. kmguru Staff Member

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    11,757
    There are several ways to solve this problem.

    1. Make your body home to friendly bacterias, with the hope that there will be no room for the baddies. Take pro-biotics every day.

    2. Develop organisms that can eat Staph but are friendly to human body. That would take some serious research.

    3. Develop plant based vaccine for these staph

    4. Develop fruits and vegetables that produce toxins to kill staph which will be adaptive each year for new strains.

    5. Use powerful antibiotic chemicals as the last resort.

    The fact that we do not create an environment of primary defense....and depend on more powerful drugs for simple infections like Z-Pak is causing all the havoc.
     
  20. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    I think Baron has a point. Bird flu was way overblown. But MRSA is a serious threat.

    In may sister's case, Tetracycline seems to be kicking MRSA's ass.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2007
  21. Learned Hand Registered Senior Member

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    361
    Hey, that means it's like a terror attack. Let's get King George II on it ASAP BEFORE he tries to take over Iran. Maybe he can win this one with the help of science, as opposed the war mongrels.
     
  22. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    4,969
    we use active manuka honey to treat mastitis caused by staph aureus in our cows. antibiotics are useless for it.
     

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