Antibiotics may be the harbinger of next human catastrophe

[Gary7]

Penicillin was the very first antibiotic. It was a major game changer in medicine, vanquishing bacteria that would either make a person suffer much longer or even kill them. Penicillin changed the survival rate astronomically, and paved the way for many other antibiotics to be created... and sold.

Some of you may have heard of "super bacteria," ones that are resistant to antibiotics. This has come about due to an overabundance of antibiotic prescriptions that have been made over the last 25+ years. Every time we take an antibiotic, we risk the chance of some bacteria surviving. Once in a while there would be an article about it, how a bacterial strain appeared that proved resistant to antibiotics. Maybe a few people would die, and that would be it. No more news.

The situation is becoming much graver. Reportedly, the antibiotic resistant bacteria are on the rise. Why? Well, amazingly enough, bacteria have been "sharing" the genes that provide such resistance. And what enabled that was the over-prescription of antibiotics. It's a huge industry. Billions of dollars made annually on the stuff, estimated at $40 billion USD. And so, the impetus is for doctors to prescribe it, even when it's not needed. CDC estimates that it's a staggering 30%, equating to 47 million excess prescriptions.

Read more about it here: NY Times - Mysterious Infection Spans Globe in Climate of Secrecy

So we worry about climate change, wars, and terrorists threatening humanity, but it may be the very bacteria in our environment that will cause a massive culling of our population.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Title should read “Bacteria = Thanos”, not “Antibiotics = Thanos”.

Or perhaps “Cows = Thanos”.

 

[Santaman]

Human stupidity and greed =Thanos

 

[ALF]

Don't have a NYT sub but I'm curious if the article mentions potential countermeasures?
I hear about this every year or so, but it's always the problem and never paired with any solutions. It the onus completely on physicians to not over-prescribe?

Edit: wanted to mention Thanos

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

It‘s not just medical prescriptions,
Antibiotics are also heavily in use to enable livestock farmers to breed thousands of animals in veeery close proximity to each other without major outbreaks.
Those antibiotics then get into the food chains and water supplies from there.

 

[General_Phoenix]

Not sure about anywhere else, but in the United States antibiotics get prescribed a lot. I have too many examples to give, but it amazes me. Same thing with pain meds, although they have started cracking down on that.

 

[Jim Klag]

My wife had surgery in January and she was given two different antibiotics - one for internal infections and one for external and the thermonuclear dosage of ibuprofen. No opioids.

 

[haddie moonfall]

A friend of mine took an antibiotic and has spent 6 months suffering from the antibiotic.. then found out there are forums of people dealing with this ..called Flox (i think)
Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics (Avelox, Cipro, Floxin, Levaquin) If you 'do' truly need an antibiotic, avoid this or at least research beforehand.. some people suffer up to a decade from what i hear.

 

[TrickyDickie]

One particular bacteria that is very resistant to antibiotics is Helicobacter-Pylori, aka H-pylori. Many people have taken the triple and now quadruple 'therapy' for it....which includes 2 different antibiotics taken at the same time....only to have the bacteria come back, often stronger, within about 2 weeks after completing the 'treatment' regimen. One man went through the 'treatment' 8 times and said he would rather die than go through it a 9th time. One thing that the 'treatment' does is strips the body of 'friendly' bacteria, at the same time. That can have serious consequences. I recall reading about a different medical case in which a woman took antibiotics that stripped out the 'friendly' bacteria and they actually had to introduce fecal bacteria into her system from her husband, or she would have died.

H-pylori is an ongoing mystery. There is the strong suggestion that everyone has it, but that it remains dormant and hidden until something such as stress activates it. It has been determined, thus far, that H-pylori has been associated with humans for at least 58,000 years, evidently from studying old human remains. The latest research is showing that H-pylori is not just a minor stomach ailment. It is able to cause a wide range of other conditions and just might turn out to be something like the 'mother' of disease.

My wife and I both have H-pylori, in a very active state and causing many other problems. We are in the fight of our life, with ignorant doctors, malicious social service agencies, etc. We have one hell of a mess on our hands, from many different directions.

Consider: The average human body has 30 trillion human cells....but 39 trillion bacteria cells.

That has some very interesting implications, to say the very least....

 

[Jedman67]

There have been a number of different avenues currently being researched to combat anti-bacterial research. One promising method uses the bacterias natural enemy, a category of virus called a "bacteriophage" - it looks kind of like a wood screw with a bunch of pointy "legs" on the bottom that can penetrate and infect bacteria cells.
These can be used in conjunction with more tailored antibiotic treatments to make treatments more efficient and to break down antibiotic resistance.

 

[Kemaiku]

I've very rarely been on them, the last time was last year for a minor lung infection, before that I can't remember how long ago it would have been.

 

[TrickyDickie]

There have been a number of different avenues currently being researched to combat anti-bacterial research. One promising method uses the bacterias natural enemy, a category of virus called a "bacteriophage" - it looks kind of like a wood screw with a bunch of pointy "legs" on the bottom that can penetrate and infect bacteria cells.
These can be used in conjunction with more tailored antibiotic treatments to make treatments more efficient and to break down antibiotic resistance.

Additional info on that can be found here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5243869/

They have been known about for 100 years or so, but when antibiotics came along the research into phages was largely shelved. So, as things stand right now, there are various types of bacteria, including H-pylori, for which there is no phage treatment offered to even try.

EDIT:

After some further research, I turned up the following:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3685256/

One of the most significant statements in that article, in my opinion, is this:

"Phages generally contribute to host bacterial evolution by horizontal gene transfer and the host-parasite coevolutionary arms race."

In effect, that would be like tribbles and glommers modifying each other and finding a way to coexist in peace.

It suggests that phages may not be a long-term solution to eliminating bacterial infection.

It also raises the question:

To what extent are human genes being modified by 'invaders' from outside the body?

 

[Gary7]

Title should read “Bacteria = Thanos”, not “Antibiotics = Thanos”.

Or perhaps “Cows = Thanos”.

It's the fact that antibiotics will help create that super bacteria... that's the cause, the initiation point. If we used antibiotics far more responsibly, this growing problem wouldn't be happening. Bacteria will do the destroying, but antibiotics made it so.

But yeah, the resulting effect is a kind of micro-multiplied version of Thanos!