Drug-resistant diseases could trigger apocalyptic crisis

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... octor.html

Growing numbers of drug-resistant diseases could trigger an ‘apocalyptic scenario’ comparable to a catastrophic terrorist attack, Britain’s chief medical officer warned yesterday.

Dame Sally Davies said there was risk that within 20 years people going for simple operations would die of routine infections because we may ‘run out of antibiotics’ that work.

She told MPs the threat from infections that are resistant to antibiotics was so serious that the issue should be added to the Government’s national risk register of civil emergencies.

Interesting and worrying article.

[Little John]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... octor.html

Growing numbers of drug-resistant diseases could trigger an ‘apocalyptic scenario’ comparable to a catastrophic terrorist attack, Britain’s chief medical officer warned yesterday.

Dame Sally Davies said there was risk that within 20 years people going for simple operations would die of routine infections because we may ‘run out of antibiotics’ that work.

She told MPs the threat from infections that are resistant to antibiotics was so serious that the issue should be added to the Government’s national risk register of civil emergencies.

Interesting and worrying article.

Gaia's antibodies are getting to work.

[RogueMale]

As a few people have commented at the end of the article, bacteriophages can be used to treat bacterial infections, and whenever bacteria evolve resistance to them, bacteriophages can evolve to overcome that resistance.

There are no technical problems preventing their widespread use - I've checked this. The only problem is that if they were widely adopted, the pharmaceutical companies would lose financially - they're naturally occurring micoorganisms (viruses) and so can't be patented, they're the commonest organisms on the planet, can be extracted from sewage and reproduce very quickly (IIRC around 200x every 20 minutes in a bacterial broth) and so are easy to produce and literally as cheap as dirt, they're very specific so you do need to know which bacterial strain you're dealing with (unlike antibiotics, where you don't even need to know which species), and you do need special training to administer them. They're completely safe and in many cases cure the infection within hours.

Every time companies have become involved, however, it has resulted in failure, simply because phage therapy don't fit any capitalist business model.

They were, however, successfully used inside the Soviet Union from Stalin's time onwards, and still are widely used in Georgia where they were cultured. Here, bacteria infect you. In Soviet Russia, ...

They're not a drug, so they should be no drug licensing issues. They could be used in the UK as a service run from inside the NHS. The Central Public Health Laboratory in Colindale has, I believe, the necessary expertise. In addition, doctors, nurses and dentists (who could also use them to fight tooth decay) would need to learn about them. They have been used in veterinary medicine in the recent past.

So this is not a medical emergency. It's an economic problem which could easily be solved were there the political will.

[nexus]

Previously here : http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... hp?t=22351

mods, please could you merge threads, I don't mind if it's on GD.

[ceti331]

Gaia's antibodies are getting to work.

+1

if any one species becomes too densely populated, it simply becomes an abundant food source - something will evolve to consume it.

this potential catastophe is yet another symptom of one underlying problem..

[Little John]

Gaia's antibodies are getting to work.

+1

if any one species becomes too densely populated, it simply becomes an abundant food source - something will evolve to consume it.

this potential catastophe is yet another symptom of one underlying problem..

yep

[adam2]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... octor.html

Growing numbers of drug-resistant diseases could trigger an ‘apocalyptic scenario’ comparable to a catastrophic terrorist attack, Britain’s chief medical officer warned yesterday.

Dame Sally Davies said there was risk that within 20 years people going for simple operations would die of routine infections because we may ‘run out of antibiotics’ that work.

She told MPs the threat from infections that are resistant to antibiotics was so serious that the issue should be added to the Government’s national risk register of civil emergencies.

Interesting and worrying article.

Yes, see picture, upper left of this post

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2KX1zp8xG

The world could be on the brink of an outbreak of a deadly and ‘virtually untreatable’ strain of drug resistant tuberculosis unless immediate action is taken, doctors have warned.

The first cases of 'totally drug-resistant' tuberculosis have been found in South Africa, according to a new paper published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.

Clinics across the country ravaged by the bacterial lung infection, have reported an explosion in the number of patients struck down with a virulent strain.

Scary stuff.

[woodburner]

Definitely scary, it's drug resistant so the drugs won't work. No point in buying drugs so no sales for drugs companies. Maybe bacteriophages will work, so no sales for drugs companies. Definitely scary.

Then again start reading:
http://www.sgm.ac.uk/pubs/micro_today/pdf/110806.pdf
http://www.phageinternational.com/phage ... herapy.htm

Thousands of other pages available.

Thanks RM for the insight.

[RenewableCandy]

Here, bacteria infect you. In Soviet Russia, ...

[JavaScriptDonkey]

Phage therapy, if it's ever proven, will work just fine in a capitalist model as somebody will be needed to cultivate and provide exactly the right phage for every single dangerous bacteria.

That is what is referred to a massive marketplace.