Drug-resistant 'superbugs' deemed urgent threats, CDC says...New report

This has not been a hot button topic at ATS yet it really should be something we are all concerned about IMO. I actually did a thread last year about the same thing and had 13 replies so like I said it is not a hot topic....www.abovetopsecret.com...

Annually, roughly 100,000 people die from health care-associated infections, another 44,000 to 98,000 die of other preventable mistakes and tens of thousands more die from diagnostic errors or failure to receive recommended therapies, he writes. Arrogance, he says, is responsible for too many of them.

according to an article @ www.hopkinsmedicine.org... The numbers usually bantered around are around 165,000 a year from what I have read.

Bacteria is evolving and becoming resistant to the miracle drugs that were once used to fight them with. The future is looking grim in that we have no new drugs in the pipeline ready for use anytime soon.

According to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 2 million people in the United States develop serious bacterial infections that are resistant to one or more types of antibiotics each year, and at least 23,000 die from the infections.

Among the top three threats deemed "urgent" is CRE, which Frieden last March called a "nightmare bacteria" because even the strongest antibiotics are not effective against it.

According to the report, C. difficile causes 250,000 infections and kills 14,000 people in the United States each year, adding $1 billion annually in excess medical costs. Deaths from C. difficile rose 400 percent from 2000 to 2007 due to the emergence of a drug-resistant strain of the bacteria.

Gonorrhea is especially troublesome because it is easily spread, and infections are easily missed. In the United States, there are approximately 300,000 reported cases, but because infected people often have no symptoms the CDC estimates the actual number of cases is closer to 820,000

The three organisms that have been chosen as urgent are all increasing at an alarming rate to which therapies are limited," said Dr Edward Septimus, an infectious disease expert at HCA Healthcare System in Houston, Texas, and a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's Antimicrobial Resistance Workgroup.

www.foxnews.com...

Read the full article for further info...

Super bugs? or crappy immune systems?

People have been complaining for years that vaccines for instance! damage immune systems.
Its worth noting that when these 'super bugs' break out in hospitals they dont affect everyone, that does suggest the bugs are not so super, but more likely some people are more easily affected?

Antibiotics are also a bummer because they can make the environment perfect for things like candida or yeast infections. So if people aren't careful to repopulate the good bacteria they trade one illness for another that becomes even more difficult to treat.

I have no health insurance and went in for what I thought was a sinus infection several years ago (maybe 7-8 years ago). The doctor said "if you haven't had it for 2 weeks I can't give you anything." So I had to go through 2 weeks with an awful headache, and pay for another visit. If others were told this without a reason for the wait I'm sure they would learn to lie "yep it's been 2 weeks". Therefore, I think it's important to educate patients about "why". Glad to see them doing this.

It's something they have known about for a long time so to have them still over prescribing astounds me. I get they are needed at times but these are the same people who are against natural remedies so maybe it's about a kick back. All I know is I have not had a problem since that one walk in doctor refused it. In fact, every doctor since has offered them readily (to my children and me).

reply to post by VoidHawk


Superbugs, crappy immune systems, GMO foods, poor diets, eating too much sugar.....all of the above, some of the above....who knows ???

Not to mention anti-bacterial soaps and living/working in places that air sealed tight: no fresh air.

reply to post by 727Sky


Don't despair - interest tends to ebb and flow. I posted the following in 2005, attached to a podcast - also remember a quote saying superbugs learned to "feed" on antibiotics. A quick search didn't find it. Maybe you could?

...Today superbugs look triumphant. They are bacteria that resist our antibiotics. The drugs which have kept us safe for 50 years are beginning to fail. ...This is a serious situation. Over the last 5 years we've clearly seen a change in our ability to treat what should have been easily treatable infections because the bacteria have developed the ability of resisting the antibiotics. …And the more antibiotics we use, the more resistant bacteria become. Every year more than 5 million people die from infections that don't respond to antibiotics."

So now we've got diseases that bypass the immune system and medical technology too.