The day that doctors, scientists and health experts have long feared and continually warned about may have arrived, as a mutation discovered in people and livestock in China has been found to make bacteria resistant to all antibiotics – including “last resort” drugs.
A new “smart” bandage developed by Australian scientists may help stop the spread of drug-resistant bacteria by alerting doctors when a wound develops an infection.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued a technical report warning that doctors’ ability to treat life-threatening infections in children is being compromised by the practice of adding antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs to the feed of healthy livestock.
“Children can be exposed to multiple-drug resistant bacteria, which are extremely difficult to treat if they cause an infection, through contact with animals given antibiotics and through consuming the meat of those animals,” said the report’s lead author Jerome A. Paulson, MD, FAAP in a statement.
More Americans take prescription medications than ever before – nearly 60% – and obesity could be to blame.
A new study published in JAMA shows that the number of people taking prescription drugs increased from 51% of the adult population in 1999 to 59% in 2011. Cholesterol and blood pressure drugs are the most-used medications in the U.S. [1]
We now know that the overuse of antibiotics has led to a rise in drug-resistant “superbugs,” but now there may be another reason to ease up on our use of the medications: they might be making us fatter.
California has become the first state in the nation to ban the use of antibiotics in livestock for any other reasons other than to prevent or treat illness.
Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed a bill that will effectively ban the routine use of the drugs in the animals. [1]
Antibiotics have always been a double-edged sword. Yes, they kill what would otherwise be a harmful and sometimes deadly bacteria, but they also kill off the good bacteria in the gut, which allows harmful gut bacteria to proliferate. Now, scientists say they’ve found a way to disarm those dangerous gut bacteria without killing the helpful kind in the process, at least when targeting one type of bacteria.
Sixteen cases of a drug-resistant strain of “super-gonorrhea” have been reported in England, which the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV says used to be quite rare.
Just days after McDonald’s corporation said it will shift to using cage-free eggs over the next decade, investors have started pressuring the fast-food chain to remove antibiotics from all of its meat.
A drug-resistant “superbug” has infected some patients at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles. Health officials have linked the outbreak to the use of duodenoscopes. A duodenoscope is a medical device inserted into a patient’s throat to diagnose and treat gallstones, blockages, and cancers of the digestive tract. [1]
