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U.S. health officials on Thursday reported the first case in the country of a patient with an infection resistant to all known antibiotics, and expressed grave concern that the superbug could pose serious danger for routine infections if it spreads.
"We risk being in a post-antibiotic world," said Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to the urinary tract infection of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who had not traveled within the prior five months.
Frieden, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., said the infection was not controlled even by colistin, an antibiotic that is reserved for use against "nightmare bacteria."
Life finds a way. In this case, the life in question is bacteria.
...
That said, it's nothing to start wetting our pants over - much to the disappoint of the the-sky-is-falling! crowd, I'm sure.
It is an issue - we - the West in general - need to start developing, testing & trials for more antibiotics. Because of over- & mis-use - incomplete courses of treatment, inappropriate Rx (antibiotics for viral infections - which have no positive effect), doctors prescribing antibiotics essentially to shut up the patient (or the parents, in the case of children) when the antibiotic isn't necessary - we have selectively bred bacteria that have developed relative immunities to the ordinary antibiotics - especially the penicillin-based ones. & of course, bacteria breed much faster than people, & breed in vast numbers.
We've stepped up the antibiotics, by mainlining truly dangerous antibiotics only under direct supervision by a doctor - typically in a fully equipped hospital. We're hitting the point that there are very few antibiotics left that are not as dangerous - in their side effects - as the infection they're meant to control.
Doctors need to hold the line, & only prescribe when an antibiotic is needed. Otherwise, we're soon going to be @ the point that the only effective antibiotics left will entail dangerous side effects. (& that will require a lot of monitoring of use, & will be very expensive.)
We need a public/private program to invent and develop new antibiotics. The sooner the better. It will take considerable appropriations from Congress. I do not jest when I suggest a public health crisis be declared. The President should consider appointing an "infectious disease Czar" to oversee and lead this effort.
The e.coli in the article is multiply drug resistant but not resistant to all antibiotics. There is one class that can be used to the lady with the urinary infection.
Does a urinary tract infection make you wet your pants?
It can!
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Doctor, doctor, give me the news
