New Lethal Nightmare Bacteria

Health Wellness

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The more antibiotics we use and the more antibiotics are given to the livestock we eat and the more antibiotics get into the water and soil used to grow the foods we eat, the more antibiotic resistant bacteria and germs seem to show up.

I recently shared with you about a new strain of gonorrhea being referred to as ‘super gonorrhea’ because of it being resistant to most of the antibiotics used in the past to treat this sexually transmitted disease.

I also explained why the rise of antibiotic bacteria is NOT evolution but in fact the exact opposite of evolution but allow me to explain it another way.

Say you are trying to create a new breed of cat with a certain color pattern of stripes. You continue to cross breed different types of cats until you get your desired result. In the process you eliminate all of the other possibilities except for the one with color pattern of stripes you want and then you just breed those cats and no others so that all you get are cats that look just like that. In fact, what you have done through selective breeding is to eliminate some of the genetic variability within the cats to the point that only one particular genetic combination is left. Evolution requires a steady increase in genetic information not a reduction of such. If you really wanted to put a term to this, you could call it de-evolution, because it is evolution in reverse due to the loss of genetic information.

That’s kind of what happens with bacteria and antibiotics. The antibiotics kill off most of the bacteria, leaving only those that already have a genetic resistance to the antibiotic. When they begin to reproduce, you are left with an entire population of antibiotic resistant bacteria. They have lost other genetic information in the process. Since the surviving strains are now resistant to most antibiotics, they can become deadlier than their predecessors.

This is becoming more and more of a problem in many medical facilities, especially in hospitals. How common is this becoming? Consider this this:

“Researchers say that last year, they identified more than 200 cases of these ‘nightmare’ bacteria with new or rare antibiotic-resistance genes, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These rare types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria popped up all over the country, in 27 states…”

“Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are, unfortunately, a common problem in medicine today — more than 2 million Americans get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year, and 23,000 die from these infections, according to the CDC. Antibiotic-resistant infections are a major concern for health care workers because they are difficult to treat.”

Some doctors describe trying to treat these antibiotic resistant bacteria as being like trying to fight a wildfire. Once it starts to spread, containing it is very difficult, as seen with what has happened this past year with some of the wildfires in the western United States. These antibiotic resistant bacteria are not only showing up in hospitals but are spreading to healthcare facilities and nursing homes all over.

Among all of the antibiotic resistant bacteria, there is one in particular that has the medical community worried. It is called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. However, many are referring to CRE as the ‘nightmare bacteria’.

Why the ‘nightmare’ nomenclature? It’s because about 50% of the people that get infected by it die.

Researchers are busy trying to find ways to treat these antibiotic resistant bacteria, including the nightmare bacteria and hope to reduce their spread in the next few years. Until then, all they can advise is precaution and cleanliness.

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