MRSA is a real problem. I work in a microbiology lab with a researcher who takes
a particular interest in novel antibiotics, and have taken quite an interest in these
little critters. I have learned alot from him but the one thing that sticks out in my
mind is this, There will never be a "cure-all" antibiotic because of one of the
biggest debates out there, Evolution. Like it or not evolution exists and it is the
biggest problem with microbes. They seem to evolve just as fast as we can find
cures to the desieses they cause. This is because they mutate at a very fast rate
(Ecoli can double its numbers in 20 minutes under good conditions). Each time
these microbes reproduce they have the chance to mutate their genomes, if they
mutate in just the right way they may develop new ways of combating our
antibiotics, and therefore become resistant. In the hospital setting or other
antibiotic settings these things "win out" over other non resistant strains and
therefore survive and reproduce. Novel antibiotics are the one thing we have
going for us, we are reasearching ways to attack their reproduction processes,
their transcription/translation processses, and so on and so forth, it will only be a
matter of time before the next great antibiotic comes out. The real problem
comes with the MD's who prescribe these things. Just the other day another of my
professors kids was diagnosed with an ear infection. 99% of ear infections are
viral, but what did the doctor prescribe? An antibiotic, which will do nothing for a
virus. This is the real problem, because now we are seeing that the bacteria that
DO cause ear infections are becoming resistant to our child antibiotics. So what
now? When we find the next big antibiotic we need to stop the doctors from just
handing it out, especially when it will do NOTHING for the disease being
diagnosed.
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File this one under Law of Unintended Consequences. Everything you do will have some environmental effect you cannot forsee. Decades of antibiotic use and we now have some killer bacteria that are anti-antibiotic. That terrorizes me pretty well. They say the bacteria especialy like us old folks and little kids. And today a study of one such little organism was released. Known affectionately as MRSA, it’s a form of the common, omnipresent staph bacterium that’s evolved immunity to nearly all antibiotics known to man.
The first study of its kind, it comes from the U.S. Center for Disease Control. Now the super-staph, scientifically known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (hence MRSA) has a rate of infection in the U.S. of 32 per 100,000 population. It is more than double that among American blacks. And it’s not just making people sick. The study estimate over 18,000 American deaths from MRSA in 2005, fifty percent more than from AIDS. And it’s a disease that moves easily about our environment. Here’s what happened just this week, reported in the “Washington Post”, One teenager died from MRSA: “A Lynch Station, Va., teenager, Ashton Bonds, 17, succumbed to MRSA, prompting officials to shut down 21 Bedford County schools tomorrow for cleaning to prevent further infections. The infection had spread to Bonds’ kidneys, liver, lungs and the muscle around his heart.”
If the drugs have stopped working, it may be time for a different tech approach. Isn’t there some way to zap these bacteria? Or to completely sterilize surfaces, air, etc. Would you confidently send your kid back into the schools in Lynch Station after a thorough cleansing with 409 and Lysol? Sounds like those old 1950s training films where they suggested you take a good shower after each atomic attack. Meanwhile, the medics are going to continue to seek an anti-staph vaccine.
Of course, your chance for catching MRSA is much higher in a hospital because that’s were its victims tend to be collected together and there’s evidently no sure way to get rid of the lurking MRSA bacteria. Is that a business opportunity or what?
