A small study by researchers in Spain finds that dangerous germs are lurking on playgrounds. [1]
For the study, a team of scientists tested sandboxes and searched for Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. They found it alright, and it was the drug-resistant variety.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea are on the rise, and about 78 million people per year could be at risk for the sexually-transmitted disease (STD). [1]
In a recent report, the WHO explains how researchers looked at data from gonorrhea cases and antibiotic resistance from 77 countries. Of those countries:
A type of superbug has increased upwards of 700% in U.S. children since 2007, and it is associated with longer hospital stays and a trend toward a greater risk of death, a recent study in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society reveals. [1]
The potentially deadly, drug-resistant “superbug,” carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), is more widespread in U.S. hospitals than previously thought, an earlier-released study has found. [1]
Researchers looked for cases of infections caused by CRE in a sample of 4 U.S. hospitals – 3 in the Boston area and 1 in California – and identified numerous varieties of the bacterium. [2]
Public health experts have warned that antibiotic resistance could claim 10 million people each year by 2050. In early December 2016, researchers said they had discovered that livestock had become resistant to a class of antibiotics used only in humans. Now scientists have found the genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics in polluted air in Beijing, China. [1]
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.
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]
It happened in China, and then moved on to Denmark, then to England. Now, scientists in Canada say they found a mutated gene that causes bacteria to become resistant to ALL antibiotics in 2 samples of ground beef in Ontario in 2010, and in one female patient from Ottawa in 2011.
The Ottawa women who tested positive for bacteria carrying MCR-1 allegedly contracted the bug in Egypt, where she lived for several years. Three days after she returned to Canada, she was hospitalized with an abdominal infection. [1]
In the fight against malaria, there is good news and awful news. First, the good news: malaria infection rates are on the decline. Now, the awful news: many of the new malaria cases that do occur are resistant to drugs.
In December, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that global malaria deaths fell from 839,000 in 2000 to 438,000 in 2015. But the disease still strikes 200 million people a year, often killing children.
Bacteria resistant to ALL antibiotics have arrived in Europe, and experts fear it could be the start of a global epidemic of untreatable infections.
