Superbugs becoming resistant to antibiotics have been all over the news in recent months. Though while we’ve been hearing about this often, wouldn’t be it cool to actually see it? Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have made a short film that actually depicts bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics, allowing us to see evolution first-hand.
A 4th case of a superbug that is resistant to antibiotics of last resort has been reported in a Connecticut toddler, and health officials are scrambling to figure out where else the superbugs might be lurking.
A study at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom has found that one in four chicken samples, taken from the most common UK supermarkets, contain antibiotic resistant E. coli. [1]
This study, which was commissioned by the group Save Our Antibiotics, concluded that 51% of E. coli found in both pork and poultry samples were resistant to the common antibiotic trimethoprim, which is often used to treat lower urinary tract infections.
Mark Holmes, who conducted the research, stated that the findings were “worrying.” [2]
On September 2, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned most antibacterial soaps and body washes currently on store shelves, saying the products pose health risks, and don’t work any better than regular soap. [1]
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued new guidelines for treating gonorrhea that reflect the looming threat posed by antibiotic resistance.
Under the U.N. health agency’s new directives, gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), should no longer be treated with a class of antibiotics called quinolones, because quinolone-resistant strains of the disease have emerged all over the world. [1]
As health officials predicted, the Zika virus is beginning to spread across south Florida, and now a type of genetically modified (GM) mosquito designed to fight the virus has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). [1]
Some are disheveled, some are shaggy, and some are barely there. Beards are popular right now, much to many women’s dismay, and while beards sometimes catch soup and crumbs, they’re actually not unhygienic.
Adam Roberts, a clean-shaved microbiologist from University College London, decided to comb through guys’ facial hair to find out if they contain…poop. Not soup, but poop.
Scientists announced recently they’ve developed an antibiotic from a fragment of a protein found in human breast milk, and they believe it could be the solution to drug-resistant superbugs. [1]
Antibiotic resistance threatens to send medicine back to the Dark Ages. Imagine a world in which illnesses that used to be easily treated with antibiotics kill scores of people with impunity. Picture developing an infection after surgery and there is virtually no drug to treat it.
Antibiotic superbugs were once an anomaly, but now they contribute to a massive and looming health crisis. Help send a message to some of the biggest users of meat raised on antibiotics — McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Subway — to help reverse this public health challenge.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has opened the door for farmers to plant MON87419, a new strain of genetically modified (GM) corn created by Monsanto to tolerate the weed killers dicamba and glufosinate without government oversight. The move will likely increase spraying of the herbicides.
