antibiotics
lborkowski | May 18, 2010For several years, health professionals have been concerned about the rise in infections from methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA - a bacteria that's resistant to several of the antibiotics generally used to treat staph infections. CDC estimates that in 2005, there were more than 94,000 MRSA infections in the US, and more than 18,000 of those patients died. The numbers are probably much higher now.
A study just published in the journal Pediatrics gives us new information about staph infections in hospitalized US children and how they're being treated. The results show a…
revere | May 11, 2010Salmonella is an enteric pathogen that causes quite a lot of foodborne illness. I learned there were several species of Salmonella bacteria of which the cause of typhoid fever was called Salmonella typi. Spread via food and water it used to kill a lot of people in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Nowadays all Salmonella bacteria are considered to be different subspecies (serovars) of just one species, Salmonella enterica. There are more than 2500 of them, of which several routinely infect humans. Salmonella enteritidis is the most common form of foodborne bacterial infection (NB: many…
mikethemadbiologist | May 4, 2010If you want the short version, Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA is a must read. While I have a couple minor quibbles (more about those in a bit), they don't detract from either the importance or the style of this book. While there has been a lot written about methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that describes how awful these infections can be, unlike most authors, McKenna makes it clear that this epidemic arose and persists because of human error.
Rather than throwing our hands up and proclaiming doom and gloom--although there is a fair bit of that (and rightly so)--McKenna…
mikethemadbiologist | April 20, 2010One of the best ways to deal with the problem of antibiotic resistance is infection control in hospitals. That is, if patients aren't getting infections, whether those be sensitive or resistant to antibiotics, then there's less of a problem. Massachusetts has released its annual report on hospital infection rates. The report currently looks at two major causes of hospital acquired infections: central venous catheter blood stream infections (CLABSIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs).
The good news is that, compared to the nation as a whole, MA does no worse or even better than the…
neurophilosophy | March 10, 2010ALZHEIMER'S Disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting an estimated 30 million people worldwide. The cause of the condition is unknown, but the prime suspect is amyloid-beta (Aβ), a 42-amino acid peptide which accumulates within neurons to form insoluble structures called senile plaques that are thought to be toxic. Aβ is synthesized in all neurons; it is associated with the cell membrane, and is thought to be involved in cell-to-cell signalling, but its exact role has eluded researchers.
A new study published in the open access journal PLoS One now shows that Aβ is a potent…
mikethemadbiologist | March 8, 2010I'm conflicted about Nicholas Kristof's recent op-ed about antibiotic resistant organisms. On the one hand, Kristof is one of the only national columnists to raise this issue at all. On the other hand, I found his most recent column somewhat confusing--and I'm an expert in this area (I also think he's jumping to unfounded conclusions, but more about that later in the post). I think this is largely an effect similar to playing "telephone": information is being transferred multiple times from the primary source and finally conveyed by someone with no biological training. So what I'm going…
mikethemadbiologist | February 18, 2010And you thought fixing the renminbi was bad. By way of Glyn Moody, we find that The Guardian has a very disturbing report about antibiotic resistance in China (italics mine):
Chinese doctors routinely hand out multiple doses of antibiotics for simple maladies like the sore throats and the country's farmers excessive dependence on the drugs has tainted the food chain.
Studies in China show a "frightening" increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA . There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs will spread quickly…
mikethemadbiologist | February 9, 2010The success of a European MRSA surveillance network shows just how stupid, foolish, and short-sighted the Obama Administration's decision to cut CDC antimicrobial resistance surveillance is. But let's turn this frown upside down campers, and look at the really cool website the European Staphylococcal Reference Laboratory Working Group set up.
Each of the Google Map pins represents a different surveillance laboratory. If you click on the pin, it tells you how many Staphylococcus aureus ('staph') isolates have been typed. You can then click the "view spa types" link. spa is a highly…
mikethemadbiologist | February 8, 2010
(from here)
By way of Maryn McKenna, we find that the Obama Administration has decided to massively cut the funding for the CDC's antimicrobial resistance and vaccination efforts. I thought this was the kind of anti-science bullshit that the Bush Administration did. From the IDSA (pdf):
Under CDC's proposed budget, the agency's already severely strapped Antimicrobial Resistance budget would be cut dramatically by $8.6 million--roughly 50 percent. This vital program is necessary to help combat the rising crisis of drug resistance, a critical medical problem that the agency deems "one of the…
mikethemadbiologist | January 1, 2010Who coulda thunk it?
There are two frustrating attitudes held by a fair number of antibiotic resistance/infectious disease specialists about MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus). First, some argue that we really shouldn't be focusing on MRSA, since it's already evolved--the cat is out of the bag. Never mind that this particular cat kills more people annually in the U.S. than AIDS. While we obviously can't prevent the evolution of MRSA (that's already happened), we can contain the problem: we would rather have one percent of all staph infections be MRSA, rather than the…
mikethemadbiologist | December 4, 2009Yesterday, four people emailed me, asking about Brian Palmer's Slate article about antibiotic resistance. Since I'll probably get more such emails (and thank you for sending them), I'll offer my thoughts below:
1) Palmer's basic point about antibiotic development not being the answer is right. All a new drug does is kick the can down the road, since resistance will evolve to the new drug. Having said that, we currently do need new drugs, so we shouldn't stop developing them.
2) Palmer is not correct about plasmid curing as being a solution to antibiotic resistance. If we come up with a…
mikethemadbiologist | December 3, 2009It's between fifteen to twenty one cents of every dollar spent by hospitals. A recent study examined the costs of antibiotic resistant infections in hospitals. The main finding (italics mine):
The total attributable hospital and societal cost ranges for ARI in the expanded sample were as follows: hospital, $3.4-$5.4 million; mortality, $7.0-$9.2 million; lost productivity, $162,624-$322,707; and total, $10.7-$15.0 million. The total medical cost, if distributed to all sample patients, added $2512-$3929 (16.8%-26.3%) to the mean unadjusted hospital cost for all sample patients.
(An aside:…
mikethemadbiologist | November 23, 2009I've been looking at the House and Senate Bills, and, on antibiotic resistance, they're not bad. Both bills would evaluate hospitals on hospital-acquired infection rates (although there's no mention of nursing homes, which are a significant focus of infection). This is good.
The House bill focuses primarily on reporting of hospital-acquired infections. It's actually very specific, and there's an entire section dedicated to it (starting at p. 913). Hospitals would be penalized if they fail to report. Infections (and pertinent information, which includes resistance) would be publicly…
terrasig | October 7, 2009Welcome visitors coming from a recommendation by Dr Carmen Drahl at C&ENtral Science, the blog of the American Chemical Society's Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN):
Terra Sig has a fantastic post about the chemistry prize. The money quote: "If I see electrons being pushed around, it's chemistry."
Thank you for the kind words, Dr Drahl. New readers, feel free to weigh in down in the comments as to your take on this year's Chemistry prize.
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three amazing scientists who elucidated the chemical bond-by-chemical bond action of the…
mikethemadbiologist | August 27, 2009I came across an email that made me realize that I'll never get another quite like it:
Dear [Mad Biologist]
Thank you for your letter on S. 549 the Preservation of Antibiotics for Human Treatment Act. I share your concern on this critical health issue.
In recent years, we have done too little to prevent the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria and other germs, too many of our most powerful drugs are no longer effective. The World Health Organization estimates that 14,000 Americans die every year from, today, one American dies every 38 minutes from a resistant infection every…
mikethemadbiologist | August 26, 2009You might find it hard to believe, but determining whether restricting antibiotic use leads to decreased resistance is actually not very straightforward. That's because antibiotic resistance genes can be linked to--that is, they travel along with--other resistance genes or even genes that are favored for some other reason. So even when an antibiotic is no longer used, the use of other antibiotics (or other antibacterials such as quarternary ammonium compounds or colloidal silver) can keep these genes around.
But quinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin ("Cipro"), which are used to treat…
mikethemadbiologist | August 19, 2009While I'm loath to disagree with ScienceBlogling Daniel MacArthur about genomics, I can't really agree with his assessment of genetic risk prediction:
Wright provides a balanced review of the implications of the article, and finishes with a paragraph worth quoting verbatim:
However, far from supporting calls to forbid such tests being available DTC, this highlights the need for transparencymeasurement of the DNA sequenceitself (the assay) will remain constant, the interpretation of the result (the test) is likely to change as the science develops.
Amen. As I have consistently argued here on…
mikethemadbiologist | August 12, 2009In the midst of the concern about TEH SWINEY FLOO!, very few people (other than the Mad Biologist), have been discussing the double whammy of influenza followed by bacterial infections. A couple of years ago, I first started describing reports of KPCs:
No, KPC isn't a new fast food restaurant. It's short for Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase. The bad news: it's very hard to treat. The good news: it's very rare...for now.
Actually, the correct term is KPC-possessing K. pneumoniae [these genes are now showing up in other bacteria], but we'll just use the slang 'KPC'--it's what all the cool…
revere | July 22, 2009The National Pork Producers Council didn't like swine flu being called swine flu. Bad for business. So we now call it 2009 H1N1 or some such thing. It's totally swine-origin, but hey, if Lord Agribusiness doesn't like it, that's that. Same thing with antibiotic resistant bacteria, like methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus ("MRSA"; best source on the net Maryn McKenna's blog). The Pork Council doesn't want anyone to die of MRSA. They just don't want it associated with their product, even though a Dutch strain associated with pigs is now spreading in the US (and infecting people).
Some…
grrlscientist | July 20, 2009tags: TEDTalks, medicine, infections, new technology, alpha-gal aptomer, antibiotics, Kary Mullis, streaming video
Drug-resistant bacteria kills, even in top hospitals. But now tough infections like staph and anthrax may be in for a surprise. In this video, Nobel-winning chemist Kary Mullis, who watched a friend die when powerful antibiotics failed, unveils a radical new cure that shows extraordinary promise [4:42]
TEDTalks shares the best ideas from the TED Conference with the world, for free: trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses, all giving the talk of…