This problem has been coming and going for a while. For want of a small item, hospitals and clinics are brought to their knees.
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For Want of a Nail?
Tag Archives: antibiotics
The age of phage?
I have run into this problem since grad school. What’s the plural of virus? Is it viri? Virus? Viruses?
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Potent Antibiotics Weaken with Triclosan
Yesterday, we finished our discussion of fish- and how what we buy (actually who grows them) is increasing antibiotic resistance. After all, if we keep feeding fish a slew of antibiotics, it shouldn’t be surprising that more microbes learn how to fight off our pharmaceutical defenses.
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Water. Agriculture. Aquaculture. Antibiotic Resistance (3)
So, now we’re ready. We already know that we are buying and eating the delectable offerings of Chinese shrimp and catfish. Even if they try to claim they are Malaysian or even American.( What? You haven’t read Monday’s or Tuesday’s post? )
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Rotovirus to the rescue?
So, yesterday, we spoke about one new avenue to developing new antibiotics. Today, we will talk about what happens when we take antibiotics.
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BAM!
I’ve written often (here and here, just for starters) how we have not developed new methods to eradicate infections from our bodies. We use microbes to fatten our animals- cattle, chicken, etc.- because we’ve learned that putting antibiotics in animal feed not only keeps many infections at bay- even if they are not ready to invade the livestock- but feeding the antibiotics makes the animals gain weight- fast. Which cuts the amount of time farmers and ranchers need to maintain the animals before they are slaughtered for our food.
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Animal. Human. Not so different after all.
I’ve written about the practice of feeding antibiotics to our animals. And, why that puts our overall health at risk. After all, if we feed the same antibiotics to animals that we use for disease control, microbial resistance is bound to accelerate. First, because the animals will harbor microbes that get a chance to mutate and those resistant microbes can be transferred to humans via our food. Moreover, the antibiotics we feed our animals often end up in our waterways, which provides yet another process where the microbes can develop resistance to our critical drugs.
Continue reading Animal. Human. Not so different after all.
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Asthma, Caesarean birth, breast feeding, and antibiotics?
You know that statement, ‘You are what you eat’? There’s a lot more to it.
As I’ve written a few years ago, I wrote about Helicobacter pylori and their association with ulcers AND Parkinson’s. (I will talk soon about different gut conditions and Parkinson’s, too.) Today, I’ll discuss how gut bacteria are associated with the incidence of asthma- an affliction that affects about 20% of the children in the developed world. (Yes, I know there’s a genetic component- just ask my kids!)
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Positive for Gram Positive?
Way, way back in 1928, Arthur Fleming, who was working at St. Mary’s Hospital, found a contaminant amongst his petri dishes laden with Staphylococcus aureus. It’s not unusual for microbial petri dishes to be contaminated- and we continually strive to improve our practices to insure this is not the case. (It certainly was more prevalent in the past.)
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Anti-antibiotics?
Well, it IS happening. Big pharma is agreeing to withhold antibiotics from agribusinesses. To be honest, I am pretty surprised. Because, as I wrote some time ago, I thought the FDA’s voluntary request would fall on deaf ears. But, it seems that there will be fewer antibiotics fed to animals. (Notice, I did NOT say NONE.)
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