Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found in 37 U.S. States, page 1

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found in 37 U.S. States, page

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Topic started on 6-2-2012 @ 02:14 PM by Vitchilo

This is so much fun. /sarc

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found in 37 U.S. States

Drug-resistant bacteria can kill more than half of infected patients

50% death rate... oh boy.

Half a world away, doctors in India are fighting outbreaks of bacterial infections that are resistant to more than 15 types of antibiotics. But closer to home, a similarly scary bug is making the rounds in intensive care and other long-term units of American hospitals.

In at least 37 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, doctors have identified bacteria, including E. coli, that produce Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase, or KPC—an enzyme that makes bacteria resistant to most known treatments. It's much more prevalent in America than bacteria that produce NDM-1, the enzyme that has Indian doctors "hell scared," and, according to Alexander Kallen, a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the final outcome isn't much different: superbacteria that are hard to kill.

"It's got a slightly different structure than [NDM-1]," he says of KPC. "But the bottom line is they're two different ways to produce bacteria that are resistant to a wide range of antibiotics."

That's bad news for infected patients—the mortality rate for patients infected with KPC-producing bacteria has been estimated to be as high as 50 percent. Doctors are advised to do their best to keep the bacteria from spreading, which explains why the problem is most prevalent in hospitals and other close-quarter medical units. Infected patients are often isolated.

KPC has been seen in a wide range of bacteria, including E. coli, Salmonella, and K. pneumonia, which often affects hospitalized patients.

Crazy stuff. Maybe if we didn't use anti-biotics so often, this wouldn't happen.

edit on 6-2-2012 by Vitchilo because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 6-2-2012 @ 02:43 PM by ReadyPower

That's scary. Like you said, we use to many antibiotics.. that, and some people are told to take their medication say a week.. they take it 3 days, feel better and stop using it. So from my limited knowledge, the virus/bacteria is still not dead and it slowly grows immune.

reply posted on 6-2-2012 @ 02:45 PM by Vitchilo

Originally posted by ReadyPower
That's scary. Like you said, we use to many antibiotics.. that, and some people are told to take their medication say a week.. they take it 3 days, feel better and stop using it. So from my limited knowledge, the virus/bacteria is still not dead and it slowly grows immune.

Yep that is also a big factor, according to pharmacists and doctors anyway.

And people living in horrible conditions (like in India) doesn't help with bacterias and viruses getting weaker.

reply posted on 6-2-2012 @ 02:50 PM by LittleBlackEagle

i often thought "the beast" that would take us down would come in the tiniest form. after all they are the dominant species on earth, we're just hosts.

reply posted on 10-2-2012 @ 09:36 AM by lbndhr

reply to post by Vitchilo

I know many many many many people who takes themselves and or their children to the Doctor every single time they sneeze, sniffle, cough or anything out of the normal, they get the antibiotics and suck them up thinking they are helping themselves. Ok I have a question, I rarely get sick, it has been about 4 years sense i have taken antibiotics and the reason was a deathly bad ear infection, I went to the doctor when I was so ill I was like hours from being admitted. my point is Im not a antibiotic abuser, in the past 15 years I havent even taken them 3 differnet times, If i were infected buy this new antibiotic resistant bacteria could I be healed with meds? I believe my system has zero resistance towards antibiotics.

reply posted on 10-2-2012 @ 10:27 AM by Vitchilo

reply to post by lbndhr

If i were infected buy this new antibiotic resistant bacteria could I be healed with meds?

I don't know... anti-biotics wouldn't work as you said... beside colloidal silver, I don't know what you could use to defeat the bacteria... I'm no doctor...

reply posted on 10-2-2012 @ 06:41 PM by DonaldD

This is not new news.

MRSA - (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) with multiple strains has been know about since 1960's

Now more concerning is ESBL - Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase. Beta lactamase, is an enzyme that allows many bacteria immunity to penicillin-type antibiotics. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase is a tricky bacteria in that enzyme pulls apart not penicillin based antibiotics, but also the carbapenems and cephalosporin base antibiotics.

VRE - Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus - concern that VRE is able to transfer vancomycin resistance to unrelated bacteria such as MRSA.

Perhaps the below picture depicts all ...