Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)
  • Antibiotic resistant bacteria
  • sandwicheater
    Full Member

    Just reading an article on the BBC about the above (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27204988) and got me thinking.

    To my knowledge I’ve not had any antibiotics. As a rule I try and never take any drugs, mmm’k. Woooo me!

    Will this have a beneficial affect for me should I need to take them ie, I’ll be less likely to be resistant to them or, Is it the general bacteria out there that is resistant and my lack of antibiotic use will have no relevance what so ever.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    errm, it’s not you who become resistant it’s the bugs.

    if you acquire resistant bugs then you’re in the same position as anyone else.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Yep it’s the bugs not you, but by not taking antibiotics for those pesky antibiotic resistant viruses that are going round you are helping.

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    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    So no benefits, darn it.

    EDIT: I am a helper! Think I deserve a beer. You’re all welcome.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Not really helping, just not making the problem worse.

    Having had an antibiotic resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infection, it’s not nice, GP tried about 5 different antibiotics until one worked….

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    Not making the problem worse, hmmm, is that beer worthy? Yes, yes it is.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    You should get a t-shirt;

    “Not making the problem worse since NNNN”

    Where NNNN is the year you last took an antibiotic 🙂

    portlyone
    Full Member

    Does the article mention the antibacterial handwash that we flush down the sink, making sure the only bacteria left are the ones we can’t fight?

    derek_starship
    Free Member

    Frightening really.

    Vancomycin used to be the H-bomb of antibiotics., Now it is used quite routinely.

    aP
    Free Member

    Don’t eat meat then as crop animals are regularly dosed with antibiotics to help fatten them up.
    There’s a whole world of old illnesses just waiting to return and destroy our comfortable lives. The wholesale use of antibiotics over the last 50 years for non-necessary reasons is nothing short of criminal.

    project
    Free Member

    Does the article mention the antibacterial handwash that we flush down the sink, making sure the only bacteria left are the ones we can’t fight

    Worjked in the nhs about 20 years ago and the infection control manager came round, she went ballistic when she saw bleach in the kitchen, a sbleach kills most germs and she was affraid of the infection mutating and not being able to be killed by common bleach.

    Also a major welsh hospital had to have all its plumbing removed from one ward after an infection was found in the waste pipes.

    Hospital based infections are nasty, so try and lay off the antibiotics some day they may save your life, and we are running out of new antibiotics strong enmough to kill the newinfections.

    Googlre MRSA for some insight,horrible thing it is.

    finishthat
    Free Member

    There is hope – use a phage – virus that kills bacteria

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage

    Sadly we lost some of them during the civil war in Georgia.
    no electricity to keep the specimens alive.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    we are running out of new antibiotics strong enmough to kill the newinfections

    biggest problem is that pharma won’t invest because there’s a small market for this type of antibiotic and governments don’t see it as their job to develop new drugs.

    LS
    Free Member

    Most of the Russian ‘phage originally came from the environment I believe? Should be able to collect them again with any luck (and money).

    Fungal diseases are on the up too, not just for the immunocomprimised. And they’re really hard to kill off.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Natures way of restoring a balance between resources and population….

    ampthill
    Full Member

    I think the benefit of having not taken antibiotics is that your personal bacteria population is less resistant than mine. So if you have wound infected by your own bacteria they are more likely to respond to antibiotics

    But you have no benefit if you catch a bacterial infection from an outside source of bacteria

    Edukator
    Free Member

    but by not taking antibiotics for those pesky antibiotic resistant viruses that are going round you are helping.

    Therein lies the misconception that plays a major part in antibiotic misuse. Many people take/are prescribed antibiotics when they are in fact suffering from viral infections that the antibiotics won’t combat. Antibiotics don’t help if you catch a cold virus.

    Anti-viral drugs for a virus
    Antibiotics for bacteria

    finishthat
    Free Member
    Moses
    Full Member

    wwaswas:

    biggest problem is that pharma won’t invest because there’s a small market for this type of antibiotic and governments don’t see it as their job to develop new drugs.

    Bolleaux.
    There is an excellent market for these drugs, it’s just that they take lots of research and many years to develop. And research is difficult. Yes, current antibiotics are cheap but that’s because they’ve been around for years.
    Here’s a press release from a small Liverpool-based biotech, RedX:

    Redx is a good example of the role these organisations can play in tackling this issue. Later this year, we will open a new £10.8 million research and development centre focused on anti-viral and anti-bacterial drugs. One of our key focus areas will be developing drugs to combat resistance to antibiotics. Importantly, this work is supported by the Government through a grant from the Regional Growth Fund of £4.7 million.

    Several of the big pharma companies are also working on novel antibiotics, because they see a future need and future profit. The typical cost of getting a new drug to market these days, including the cost of the failed programmes, is somewhere north of £3 billion.

    Tom_W1987
    Free Member

    Phages, nanomedicine and more vaccines are they way to combat anti-bacterial resistance.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    not taking antibiotics for those pesky antibiotic resistant viruses that are going round you are helping.

    GCSE science fail

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    not taking antibiotics for those pesky antibiotic resistant viruses that are going round you are helping.

    GCSE science fail

    Why ? There’s not a wrong statement anywhere in there

    Edukator
    Free Member

    Se my post, Scaredypants.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    Edukator, I know the science quite well

    viruses ARE antibiotic-resistant and quite pesky and by not taking antibiotics you are indeed helping

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Something is resistant when the effectiveness of a drug is reduced. Antibiotics do not affect viruses so they cannot become resistant.

    Tracker1972
    Free Member

    scaredypants, I think viruses are also exorcism resistant, we should be researching stronger religions as well.

    Moses
    Full Member

    You’re arguing about semantics, not science.
    Viruses are naturally resistant to antibiotics because they’re not biotic. It depends on your implied meaning of “resistant”

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    I think some people are misunderstanding mikewsmith’s point. It was fairly clear to me that he knows that viruses can’t be treated by antibiotics, that’s precisely the point he was making, imo.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    You’re arguing about semantics, not science.
    Viruses are naturally resistant to antibiotics because they’re not biotic. I

    So are you and your wrong.

    I think some people are misunderstanding mikewsmith’s point. It was fairly clear to me that he knows that viruses can’t be treated by antibiotics, that’s precisely the point he was making, imo.

    You might be right!

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    a_a, that’s the basis of mws’s point – they don’t respond to antibiotics (ie are resistant to their effects), so don’t try to use them

    (intrinsic resistance to antibiotics among bacteria too – it doesn’t make those organisms not bacteria though)

    If viruses are resistant to exorcism, we may as well give up 🙁

    Edukator
    Free Member

    So people can write something that’s completely wrong but if they happen to be your “mate” on the forum they obviously didn’t mean it that way, Ernie. Sometimes this place… .

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    I didn’t think that mikewsmith was my “mate” Edukator 😀

    I read his post differently to the way you did. I took his use of the term “pesky” as further proof that he was being frivolous.

    Don’t be so grumpy. And you can be my “mate” if you want 😉

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I didn’t think that mikewsmith was my “mate” Edukator

    Lol this get us to 2 things we have agreed on, do you enjoy poetry and long walks on the beach earnie?

    Yes the post had a little sarcasm in it and was aimed at the people who ask for antibiotics for a cold and pester the doc until they get something. I’d have replied but it was overnight.

    aP – Member
    Don’t eat meat then as crop animals are regularly dosed with antibiotics to help fatten them up.

    For British Meat? Not convinced and not happening from my experience. Source please

    globalti
    Free Member

    I’m in the fragrance industry, which is closely related to pharmaceuticals and it’s common knowledge now that there are no interesting new aroma molecules coming into the market. Even Astra Zeneca were complaining about this in the news recently. Simply put, every possible molecule has now been synthesised and (mostly) rejected. A guy I know who works for a pharma company told me: “The era of traditional drugs is about to end and bio-engineering is what it’s all about now. Quite soon, when you get a bacterial infection, we will give the bacterium a virus, which will kill it.”

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Quite soon, when you get a bacterial infection, we will give the bacterium a virus, which will kill it.

    and in the words of every good apocalyptic sci-fi/horror film what could possibly go wrong with that 🙂

    Moses
    Full Member

    GlobalTi – are you based in Ashford or the Wirral?

    Simply put, every possible molecule has now been synthesised and (mostly) rejected.

    No, nowhere near. We may be able to do that by computer, but not in real life. Otherwise, why is the pharma industry employing so many synthetic chemists? If anything, we’re moving away from the mass automated manufacture of new molecules to more directed, logical synthesis again.

    However for protection against A/B resistant bacteria, new vaccines and (possibly) bacteriophage treatments as well as new small molecule drugs will be needed. People have been trying to develop phage treatments for 40 years though, with no real results yet.

    globalti
    Free Member

    Ashford or The Wirral? Ptew *spits* no, Radcliffe, Manchester.

    I had to go and look up bacteriophage. It sounds as if you know your onions!

    What you say may be true in the pharmaceutical industry but in the fragrance industry it’s the accepted wisdom that the big guns like IFF, Givaudan (formerly owned by Hoffmann-La Roche), Symrise and others are running out of new ideas. The increasing paranoia about safety is certainly not helping them at all.

    Moses
    Full Member

    I didn’t know that there was a fragrance company based in Manchester. I’ll look you up.

    I suspect that the reason your industry is running short of ideas is that scent molecules have to be small enough to be volatile, with low-ish molecular weights. That does limit the variety. In addition, they have to get to the nose, so there are only so many molecular receptor shapes available.
    In the pharma industry, drugs can be injected or implanted or eaten, so a larger variety of molecular sizes and shapes can be used.
    You’re right about safety concerns too.

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    This thread has moved on. Can anyone tell me why some people appear to have built up an immunity to the smell of their own cheap aftershave ?

    Moses
    Full Member

    Tolerance. Lynx becomes the new norm.
    The same reason that some women use a plastering trowel to put make-up on, turning their faces into corpse-like masks.

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