Details every e.coli news story has been lacking.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

The massive outbreak of E coli O104 in Europe has infected more than 1,800 people and left more than 500 with the potentially deadly complication known as haemolytic-uremic syndrome. It has leapfrogged borders to at least 13 countries and killed about 20 of its victims. As health authorities try to trace the outbreak to a food that can be removed from the market, it has focused international attention on the complex paths that agricultural produce follows in an era of global trade.

One aspect of the epidemic, though, has received little notice: this aberrant strain is resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics. Among all the urgent issues raised by this outbreak, that drug resistance should ring the loudest warning bells – and prompt serious consideration of curbing the vast overuse of antibiotics that has created it.

Resistance factors forming O104's new protections have been burgeoning in Europe for at least a decade. Their movement into this strain demonstrates how freely resistance factors can leapfrog among organisms once they emerge. And that should underline how important it is to slow down the evolution of antibiotic resistance, by cutting back inappropriate use of antibiotics in everyday medicine and on farms.

According to Germany's Robert Koch Institute, O104 is resistant to more than a dozen antibiotics in eight classes: penicillins; streptomycin; tetracycline; the quinolone nalidixic acid; the sulfa drug combination trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazol; three generations of cephalosporins; and the combination drugs amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, piperacillin-sulbactam, and piperacillin-tazobactam. Indifference to so many drugs signals that O104 possesses what is called ESBL resistance – and in fact, according to the Koch analysis, the strain harbors two genes that confer that resistance, TEM-1 and CTX-M-15 – a property that has been making doctors shudder since the 1990s, when strains of ESBL-resistant Klebsiella, a bacterium that causes serious hospital-acquired infections, began pingponging through Europe.

Where are these resistance factors coming from? The development of resistance is an inevitable biological process; it's what bacteria do to protect themselves against deadly compounds, whether the compounds were made naturally by other bacteria or artificially in a drug-development lab. But excessive exposure to antibiotics hastens the process and makes its results unpredictable.

That excessive exposure happens any time anyone takes antibiotics for a health problem for which they are inappropriate, such as colds or ear infections. It happens even more when low-dose antibiotics are deployed by the tonne in large-scale agriculture, without any surveillance to report back what bugs are emerging. Researchers in Spain and the US say there are links between large-scale agriculture and the emergence of ESBL: they have found bacteria harbouring that resistance in the meat of supermarket chickens.

We know where the antibiotic resistance in this outbreak has come from – and given bacteria's promiscuous propensity to trade genetic material, we know that O104 is keeping that resistance going by harbouring it and handing it off to yet another species. It's past time that governments and health authorities do what they can to slow down the evolution of drug resistance, by curbing the antibiotic misuse that brings it into the world.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/05/deadly-ecoli-resistance-antibiotic-misuse

...

Opinions

1. The global news media with its tendency to omit details in favor of the corporate world(dont report facts that make rich people look bad) sucks.

2. Antibiotic resistant microbes suck.

3. Rich agricultural developers who use antibiotic animal feed as a cheapest method to keep their animals alive in deplorable living conditions suck.

4. Antibiotics in the environment create a vacuum where antibiotic resistant microbes can thrive. That sucks.

5. Antibacterial soaps and similar products have the same effect. Dude, that sucks too.

6. Bad practices and misuse of antibiotics have created an ideal environment for resistant superbugs to thrive and proliferate. 30%-50% of meat products in the United States contain antibiotic resistant microbes of some type. Sucks.

7. Did I mention it sucks?

Comments

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I wonder why some of the patients have survived if the bacteria doesn't respond to any normal antibiotics. Just their body finally "wins" the pitched battle? What's crazy is that now antibiotics are actually showing up in trace amounts in our drinking water supply, it's because they're being used in everything including feed for factory based livestock, poultry, and people just flushing their pills down the toilet, never mind just being in your urine.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Treating e.coli with antibiotics causes massive amounts of toxins to be released. The normal treatment is to allow them to recover normally.

Yeah, it is crazy. And that sucks.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

When I was a teenager, the dermatologist use to give me HUGE bottles of tetracycline. 200 pills in a bottle. Had to take 3 a day. Then refills up to five times. In hind sight it was insane.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

When it comes to prescription drugs and similar treatments I'm a Howard Hughes level oddball. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a prescription drug in existence that won't give you cancer eventually. Aspirins, pills and unnatural things are teh dev1l!

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Well that's a bit over the boards I think.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Do Prescription Drugs Cause Cancer? (http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2008/10/20/do-prescription-1/)

Do arthritis drugs cause cancer? (http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/04/arthritis-fda-update-markets-equities-cx_lal_0604markets29.html)

Blood pressure drugs may cause cancer (http://www.adi-news.com/common-blood-pressure-drugs-may-cause-cancer/2853/)

It has possibly been an issue as early as 1964 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873908,00.html)

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

What could be more natural than depleted uranium? It is a friggin' element.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

What's your objection to willowbark?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Water treatment misses pharmaceuticals when it filters, or uses reverse osmossis, or treats with UV.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

It has leapfrogged borders to at least 13 countries and killed about 20 of its victims.

While there is no glory in a disaster averted, like Y2K (which I was part of for several companies), I credit the FDA for avoiding and minimizing a lot of the food borne crises in the U.S.

I however, agree that the prophylactic use of antibiotics in this country is a disaster waiting to happen. Much of this is due to readily available and inexpensive low-level health care for the insured in this country. My wife once insisted that my daughter get a pregnancy test from a clinic instead of getting a home pregnancy test only because the co-payment was cheaper through our insurance.

I do, however, disagree with your statement that antibiotics should be used for ear infections. I almost lost an eardrum due to an unattended ear infection when I was a kid. The doctor said it was caught just in time, and a painful draining procedure had to be used.

This is kind of a new phenomenon with this, and the prior, generation of parents. When I was growing up, you let most childhood diseases just run their course rather than running to the doctor for every little sniffle or rash.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

I've taken antibiotics for serious things. Not taking them defeats the purpose of wanting to be healthy, doesn't it?

We're all going to DIE!

[russj.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that the antibiotics that have saved so many lives, have assisted natural selection by killing off the weakest strains of bacteria, giving up their habitat to the nastiest bugs.

For years now it's been popular for people to use 'hand sanitizer' instead of soap to wash their hands.

Many doctors over-prescribe antibiotics, and many patients don't take them for a complete course of treatment to ensure that the bugs are good & killed. And these drugs are excreted from our bodies and enter the environment.

I've been fairly healthy all my life, but some day I could contract a super-germ, and when I really need an effective treatment--there may not be one.

I agree with your OP opinions--these things SUCK big time!

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I had really, really bad ear infections. They were utterly crippling - I could only really sit inside, curled in a ball and crying. They had to put tubes in my ears like three times to stop them from just swelling shut permanently. Anyway, they used to give me high-dose antibiotics every time I got them (normally 6 or more times a year). Then eventually they stopped because someone pointed out the whole super-resistant strain thing. So I've had to suffer through several ear infections unassisted, because they over-medicated when I was a kid.

Good times.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Bummer. Taking antibiotics sucks. I hate drinking that stuff. Having infections sucks even more.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I feel for you man, because ear aches are insanely painful.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Oh man I still remember that and it was almost 60 years ago. I got penicilin. They didn't do tubes in those days.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I'm allergic to penicillin. We found out because I got an ear infection when I was 5. I had tubes in the ear also.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Its worst in countries like India where sanitation standards and disposal of waste availability are currently at all time lows.

Drug pharmaceutical corps contend developing new antibiotics are too expensive to pursue. This has been shown to be a myth, one that is patently false by several different sources.

I agree, its only a matter of time. Then again the Pianka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pianka#Texas_Academy_of_Science_speech) sympathizers favor a reduction in the world's population. Some will welcome widespread plague with open arms, eh.

ANTIBIOTICS ARE OTC IN EUROPE-THAT'S WHY BACTERIA IS RESISTANT TO SO MANY OF THEM.

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

You neglected to mention the fact that antibiotics are sold over the counter, without prescription, in most European countries. This more than anything else has contributed to antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria throughout the world.

The fact that this particular outbreak of antibiotic-resistant bacteria occurred in Europe is quite significant.

The LA Times had a story recently about E. Coli-infected bean sprouts in Europe contributing to the outbreak. They also pointed out that due to their growing environment, bean sprouts in general are at a very high risk of infection for a variety of bacteria, and if the seeds from which they sprout are infected, the resulting sprout is at great risk of spreading the bacteria to others in the patch.

The FDA and CDC are now recommending that bean sprouts only be consumed when fully cooked, especially by children, the elderly and people with auto-immune irregularities:

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-sprouts-ecoli-salmonella-20110610,0,427758.story

Re: ANTIBIOTICS ARE OTC IN EUROPE-THAT'S WHY BACTERIA IS RESISTANT TO SO MANY OF THEM.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria appear to be common in the United States also (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/food-resistant-staph/):

A team of researchers from Arizona bought meat and poultry in five cities across the United States, tested them for bacteria, and found this: 47 percent of the samples contained the very common pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, and 96 percent of those isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Of more concern: 52 percent of those staph isolates were resistant to at least three antibiotics that are commonly used in both veterinary and human medicine.

I suspect agriculture practices and factory farming has more to do with it.

Re: ANTIBIOTICS ARE OTC IN EUROPE-THAT'S WHY BACTERIA IS RESISTANT TO SO MANY OF THEM.

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

That's a part of it, too, but don't underestimate the impact that overuse of OTC antibiotics in Europe has had. After all, it's not as though these strains of bacteria are isolated on certain continents. The fact of the matter is that antibiotics are overused in general, right down to the antibiotics now used in common soaps.

Re: ANTIBIOTICS ARE OTC IN EUROPE-THAT'S WHY BACTERIA IS RESISTANT TO SO MANY OF THEM.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Sure. [:

Another main issue has to do with our livestock being feed antibiotics constantly just to keep them alive in the destitute and inhumane living conditions present within factory farms.

Cows, pigs, chickens practically every animal raised as a food product is constantly fed antibiotic laced feed. It creates a vacuum where antibiotic resistant microbes can proliferate. Probably the main reason meats and processed foods contain untreatable microbes.

Eventually, we'll be back to where we were before penicillin was discovered.

Re: ANTIBIOTICS ARE OTC IN EUROPE-THAT'S WHY BACTERIA IS RESISTANT TO SO MANY OF THEM.

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

Eventually, we'll be back to where we were before penicillin was discovered.
I know, and it's a very scary thought. We're more likely to be felled by an antibiotic-resistant bacterium rather than some new plague of some sort. But then that's nature's way of clearing the fields, as it were, and starting over afresh, just as it does with wildfires. We had the black plague and the great flu epidemic; unfortunately, we're long overdue another one.