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Drug-Resistant Bugs a Global Threat, WHO Says
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/drug-resistant-bugs-global-threat-who-says-n92716
"Germs that defy antibiotics are now a major global health threat, causing near-untreatable cases of diarrhea, sepsis, pneumonia and gonorrhea, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are to blame, and the WHO’s been warning about the problem for years but it keeps worsening, says Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security.
"We are really seeing the emergence of this all over the world," Fukuda told a news conference.
"What it means is that all of us, all our family members…when we are most vulnerable and in need of these medicines there is simply the chance that they are not available," he added.
“Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.”
People are overusing antibiotics, experts agree. The drugs work well when used as directed against bacterial infections. But they don’t kill all the bad bugs, and the ones that survive can multiply and spread their drug-resistant genes. This happens especially when people take the wrong antibiotic, or take them to treat a viral infection, because antibiotics don’t affect viruses.
Perhaps worst of all is when people don’t take a full course of antibiotics — leaving a half-treated population of bacteria in their bodies to thrive and spread.
The WHO report finds that a drug-resistant strain of an intestinal bug called Klebsiella pneumonia has now spread to every region of the world. It withstands the effects of the treatment of last resort, a group of antibiotics called carbapenems.
“In some countries, because of resistance, carbapenem antibiotics would not work in more than half of people treated for K. pneumoniae infections,” WHO says.
It's been a problem in the United States for decades.
Last fall, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than two million people are infected by drug-resistant germs each year, and 23,000 die of their infections. The biggest killer by far in the U.S. is diarrhea-causing C. difficile.
Gonorrhea may not be immediately life-threatening, but it’s developing resistance to the drugs that used to easily treat it. Patients can be left infertile.
Nearly 322,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported in the U.S. in 2011, making it the second most commonly reported notifiable infection in the nation.
The CDC asked for $30 million in the U.S. budget to open specialized labs to help spot these infections more quickly.
Overuse in farm animals is another problem.
In an attempt to help, 25 U.S. companies said earlier this year they’d phase out the use of antibiotics to help farm animals grow fatter.
"There's been a tendency in the past for people to think that antibiotics are risk-free drugs that people should ask for and take any time they're feeling a little bit ill. That's not correct," the CDC's Dr. Steve Solomon told NBC news. "So carefully using antibiotics is really the most important thing that we can do."
"Germs that defy antibiotics are now a major global health threat, causing near-untreatable cases of diarrhea, sepsis, pneumonia and gonorrhea, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are to blame, and the WHO’s been warning about the problem for years but it keeps worsening, says Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security.
"We are really seeing the emergence of this all over the world," Fukuda told a news conference.
"What it means is that all of us, all our family members…when we are most vulnerable and in need of these medicines there is simply the chance that they are not available," he added.
“Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.”
People are overusing antibiotics, experts agree. The drugs work well when used as directed against bacterial infections. But they don’t kill all the bad bugs, and the ones that survive can multiply and spread their drug-resistant genes. This happens especially when people take the wrong antibiotic, or take them to treat a viral infection, because antibiotics don’t affect viruses.
Perhaps worst of all is when people don’t take a full course of antibiotics — leaving a half-treated population of bacteria in their bodies to thrive and spread.
The WHO report finds that a drug-resistant strain of an intestinal bug called Klebsiella pneumonia has now spread to every region of the world. It withstands the effects of the treatment of last resort, a group of antibiotics called carbapenems.
“In some countries, because of resistance, carbapenem antibiotics would not work in more than half of people treated for K. pneumoniae infections,” WHO says.
It's been a problem in the United States for decades.
Last fall, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than two million people are infected by drug-resistant germs each year, and 23,000 die of their infections. The biggest killer by far in the U.S. is diarrhea-causing C. difficile.
Gonorrhea may not be immediately life-threatening, but it’s developing resistance to the drugs that used to easily treat it. Patients can be left infertile.
Nearly 322,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported in the U.S. in 2011, making it the second most commonly reported notifiable infection in the nation.
The CDC asked for $30 million in the U.S. budget to open specialized labs to help spot these infections more quickly.
Overuse in farm animals is another problem.
In an attempt to help, 25 U.S. companies said earlier this year they’d phase out the use of antibiotics to help farm animals grow fatter.
"There's been a tendency in the past for people to think that antibiotics are risk-free drugs that people should ask for and take any time they're feeling a little bit ill. That's not correct," the CDC's Dr. Steve Solomon told NBC news. "So carefully using antibiotics is really the most important thing that we can do."
I agree that antibiotics are way over used and doctors need to stop relenting to the pressure of patients and not prescribe it, for conditions it's not meant to treat.
I also agree that antibiotics aren't the only thing wrong with our food supply. Much of our food is contaminated with glyphosate, which is the main ingredient in Round Up. So much of our food has been modified to the point of not only being unhealthy, it's downright dangerous.
Another issue is the cleanliness of packing places. I was reading, this morning, about the farm that produced the cantelopes that caused so many deaths a couple of years ago... It was filthy; and it seems that many others, both vegetable and meat packers are the same way, though the USDA is much more strict about meat facilities than FDA is about fruit/vegetable facilities.
I'll continue to eat my plump juicy meat; however, I'm much more careful about where it came from than I used to be. One of our local grocery stores has been putting the origin of the meat on the packages... they seem to think that as long as it says that the meat was raised in the U.S. that it's much better... smart way to trick shoppers into thinking it's safer. Other countries don't allow the use of antibiotics in livestock or "Round Up ready" seeds, etc... Why would we specifically want meat and produce that came from the U.S if it's more unhealthy than that grown in other countries?
I also agree that antibiotics aren't the only thing wrong with our food supply. Much of our food is contaminated with glyphosate, which is the main ingredient in Round Up. So much of our food has been modified to the point of not only being unhealthy, it's downright dangerous.
Another issue is the cleanliness of packing places. I was reading, this morning, about the farm that produced the cantelopes that caused so many deaths a couple of years ago... It was filthy; and it seems that many others, both vegetable and meat packers are the same way, though the USDA is much more strict about meat facilities than FDA is about fruit/vegetable facilities.
I'll continue to eat my plump juicy meat; however, I'm much more careful about where it came from than I used to be. One of our local grocery stores has been putting the origin of the meat on the packages... they seem to think that as long as it says that the meat was raised in the U.S. that it's much better... smart way to trick shoppers into thinking it's safer. Other countries don't allow the use of antibiotics in livestock or "Round Up ready" seeds, etc... Why would we specifically want meat and produce that came from the U.S if it's more unhealthy than that grown in other countries?
I wish the stuff being injected into our nations meat sources were the entire problem. Our fruit and vegetable crops are genetically screwed with and then doused with all kinds of cancer causing agents that antibiotics have no course of action with.... We're doomed. DOOMED!
I was actually just reading this on a different site. Very scary but has been coming. The over use of antibiotics for years is a major reason for this. I am glad in the US we need a prescription for certain medication, in other parts of the world they walk in and can get anything you want.
You see this happening with gonorrhea, as some strains have become resistant to treatment.
And it doesn't help that no one has tried to develop anything new.
You see this happening with gonorrhea, as some strains have become resistant to treatment.
And it doesn't help that no one has tried to develop anything new.
Just at a roast-beef sandwich... yummy! More cow please!!!
It's time for a pandemic. Seriously.
The earth needs a good colon-cleansing, and nothing does that better than a global disease that kills BILLIONS of people.
Republican... Democrat... Conservative... Liberal... Independent... blah, blah, blah.
Wipe the slate clean and start over again.
The sooner we all admit to ourselves that we've created a screwed up, unsustainable global "system", the better off everyone will be.
No one can agree on anything. Is it simply human nature to disagree? Is it a function of the meaning of humanity, for everyone to have different opinions on subjects, so much so, that they're willing to die for their right to voice their opinion and push their ideals on someone else? Why is it that I MUST think & believe what YOU think and believe?
Between you and me, I don't care if you think what I think, or believe what I believe. I don't feel it necessary to KILL or PUSH my beliefs on you to get you to think like me. I'll talk to you, I'll listen to you, and then I'll go home, happy as a clam.
It's like my atheism. I don't feel it necessary to MAKE you think like I do. I don't understand why it's not the other way around? WHY do God-people feel it absolutely necessary to MAKE me believe?
I'm sick and tired of everyone trying to push their crap down my throat! Leave me alone! leave my money alone! Leave my family alone! Stop trying to MAKE me be something I don't want to be! STOP telling me I don't pay enough taxes!
But therein lies the rub... "leave my money alone". Just how oh how will the gov't survive if it can't steal your money from you? So tired...
So endeth the rant!
It's time for a pandemic. Seriously.
The earth needs a good colon-cleansing, and nothing does that better than a global disease that kills BILLIONS of people.
Republican... Democrat... Conservative... Liberal... Independent... blah, blah, blah.
Wipe the slate clean and start over again.
The sooner we all admit to ourselves that we've created a screwed up, unsustainable global "system", the better off everyone will be.
No one can agree on anything. Is it simply human nature to disagree? Is it a function of the meaning of humanity, for everyone to have different opinions on subjects, so much so, that they're willing to die for their right to voice their opinion and push their ideals on someone else? Why is it that I MUST think & believe what YOU think and believe?
Between you and me, I don't care if you think what I think, or believe what I believe. I don't feel it necessary to KILL or PUSH my beliefs on you to get you to think like me. I'll talk to you, I'll listen to you, and then I'll go home, happy as a clam.
It's like my atheism. I don't feel it necessary to MAKE you think like I do. I don't understand why it's not the other way around? WHY do God-people feel it absolutely necessary to MAKE me believe?
I'm sick and tired of everyone trying to push their crap down my throat! Leave me alone! leave my money alone! Leave my family alone! Stop trying to MAKE me be something I don't want to be! STOP telling me I don't pay enough taxes!
But therein lies the rub... "leave my money alone". Just how oh how will the gov't survive if it can't steal your money from you? So tired...
So endeth the rant!
“Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.”
Good luck with making factories in Shanghai and Mumbai EPA compliant.
"Overuse in farm animals is another problem.
In an attempt to help, 25 U.S. companies said earlier this year they’d phase out the use of antibiotics to help farm animals grow fatter."
Enjoy your plump and juicy meat.
Good luck with making factories in Shanghai and Mumbai EPA compliant.
"Overuse in farm animals is another problem.
In an attempt to help, 25 U.S. companies said earlier this year they’d phase out the use of antibiotics to help farm animals grow fatter."
Enjoy your plump and juicy meat.
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