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Old 03-10-2010, 11:20 AM
 
Location: Planet Eaarth
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"The evidence is overwhelming that these new superbugs are at least partially a result of dosing farm animals with subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics added to their feed." (snip) "Now consider: The U.S death rate from the staph infection MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) surpassed the death rate from AIDS way back in 2005."


Rise of the Superbugs: Why We Are Increasingly at Risk From Antibiotic-Resistant Diseases | Food | AlterNet
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Old 03-10-2010, 11:42 AM
 
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Holy crap...is that MRSA fact true?!

I read stuff like this and giggle about how viruses are the oldest living creatures. When the tough get tough, they get tougher. One could learn a lot from a virus about ultimate survival.
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Old 03-10-2010, 12:03 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pitt_transplant View Post
Holy crap...is that MRSA fact true?!

I read stuff like this and giggle about how viruses are the oldest living creatures. When the tough get tough, they get tougher. One could learn a lot from a virus about ultimate survival.
MRSA facts in the article are true...

MRSA isn't a virus....its bacteria

Technically a virus isn't even a "living creature" and as a parasite, something else had to come first.....
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Old 03-10-2010, 12:20 PM
 
8,411 posts, read 39,188,047 times
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Breaks in paragraph denote change in subject. I know MRSA is not a virus. I did not state that is was a virus.

A lamprey is also a living creature and parasite. They are both alive and viruses ARE the oldest living creature. A "creature" is a living organism. As long as we are getting technical I though you should know that.
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Old 03-10-2010, 01:20 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
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Technically a virus isn't even a "living creature"
That's debatable. If you ask me, if the definition of "alive" excludes virii, that definition needs revision. However it is true that some people do not consider virii to be alive as they do not possess all the established qualities of life that we see in other creatures.
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Old 03-10-2010, 03:55 PM
 
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Viruses aren't 'alive' in any sense. They don't metabolize. ANYTHING.

MRSA is a more frequent cause of death because EVERY NORMAL PERSON has Staphylococcus aureus on his/her skin (it's NORMAL TO HAVE THAT), and a certain proportion is MRSA. Most Staph is still methicillin susceptible (MSSA). It's infinitely more common (especially these days) in the general population than HIV, so it's really not at all surprising. Especially when the mode of transmission of HIV is relatively difficult (compared to a normal genus of skin bacteria).
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Old 03-10-2010, 04:01 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
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Viruses aren't 'alive' in any sense.
They are certainly alive in the sense that they are animate and that they reproduce themselves. Of course they require some other creature's cells in order to achieve this, but I understand that there are several types of bacteria which also need this and are classified as alive. If they are not alive, then what are they?
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Old 03-10-2010, 04:07 PM
 
5,644 posts, read 13,187,375 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pitt_transplant View Post
Breaks in paragraph denote change in subject. I know MRSA is not a virus. I did not state that is was a virus.

A lamprey is also a living creature and parasite. They are both alive and viruses ARE the oldest living creature. A "creature" is a living organism. As long as we are getting technical I though you should know that.
No....viruses aren't a "creature" and they aren't the oldest living of anything...and again, most scientists don't consider viruses to be a living organism so I have no idea what a lamprey has to do with the discussion.

By definition a parasite can't exist before the host it depends on..just thought you should know that....
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Old 03-10-2010, 04:55 PM
 
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No. Viruses do not reproduce themselves. They hijack a cell's machinery to do that. Like prions, they're not alive. They're just bags of RNA or DNA (depending on the virus).
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Old 03-10-2010, 05:19 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
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No. Viruses do not reproduce themselves. They hijack a cell's machinery to do that.
First you deny that they reproduce themselves, but then you describe the manner in which they do so. Yes, I understand that they hijack the cells of other organisms to reproduce themselves. I personally think that should qualify them as alive, and I know that I am not alone in this stance despite the flat assertions in this thread that they are not alive. They adapt. Things which are inanimate do not.

They are like pirates. They don't build their own ships, that requires resources that they do not have. Instead they take yours, it's much more efficient.

But we are all pretty off-topic now, the subject was supposed to be about how prophylactically feeding cows antibiotics is a bad idea.

Last edited by tilli; 03-10-2010 at 05:32 PM..
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