Real Life Horror: Superbugs

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has packaged a series of disaster preparedness resources for the general public related to the possibility of a zombie apocalypse.

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5 Real Diseases That Could Make You Act Just Like A Zombie

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“This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

~T S Eliot

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I have written on this subject before. Read my article How Will The World End? I believe ‘Superbugs’ are a real threat and I have the Medical and Science communities to back me.

 

Rising Spread of Drug-Resistant Superbugs

“With a sinking stomach, I scrolled through my patient’s medical record, down the list of antibiotics that could do nothing to help her get well. Her infection was due to bacteria resistant to most of our antibiotics. Treating it would be challenging—if we could do it at all—and require a regimen of multiple antibiotics, each with their own side effects and interactions. I called the Infectious Disease physician for her input –- for the third time that day. I’d had two other patients with similarly resistant medications in the past five hours.”

~Darria Long Gillespie, MD

How did we get here?

When doctors began using penicillin to treat infections in the 1940s, it was hailed as a “miracle cure.” Before antibiotics, strep throat was fatal. A simple urinary tract infection (UTI) could spread and lead to organ failure. Patients died from infections after surgery. But no longer. Infections that had once been inevitably fatal, claiming thousands of lives, were now treatable.

The balance shifts

Doctors started to notice that some patients seemed to be resistant to penicillin. Fortunately, pharmaceutical companies were able to develop other, more comprehensive, stronger antibiotics that could kill bacteria. But things are changing once again. And while new antibiotics are part of the solution, resolving the problem isn’t that simple.

 

A global health crisis

 

How big is the problem?

Big. And getting bigger. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that two million people become ill from resistant bacteria, and 23,000 die every year. It’s not just the U.S. and other developed countries, however. This is truly a global problem, especially in developing countries. In India, more than 58,000 infants died last year due to resistant infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns us of the possibility of entering into a “post-antibiotic era” in which our antibiotic regimens are ineffectual.

 

Why is this happening?

– Overuse of antibiotics

Some doctors prescribe antibiotics for any little issue. Your toe nail hurts? Here’s a prescription for antibiotics. You sneezed twice this morning? Here’s a prescription for antibiotics. You scratched your head? Here’s a prescription for antibiotics.

– Antibiotics pumped into some of our animal food sources, creating drug resistance in those animals.

Some of those bacteria strains may get passed to humans.

– Patients failing to complete a course of antibiotics.

Think of the times you may have stopped or forgot to finish an antibiotic once you were feeling better.

 

Superbugs sound scary — and they are.

 

A superbug is a strain of bacteria that can no longer be killed with an antibiotic — they become antibiotic resistant, or drug resistant. Some common infections and conditions that may become untreatable include MRSA, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections, E. coli and meningitis. Find out what you need to know to protect yourself and your family from superbugs, avoid infection and stay healthy.

 

“Anyone who pays attention to health news knows that deadly bacteria are a growing threat to everyone.” ~ Joel Fuhrman, MD

 

“Antibiotics are medications that fight bacterial infections. Often the bacteria learn how to avoid antibiotics over time. The more exposure to an antibiotic that bacteria have, the more likely the bacteria is to learn to avoid it. This is how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.”

~ Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine

Have you ever stopped taking antibiotics a few days after beginning your dosage because you were feeling better? Do you take antibiotics every time you get a cold? Are you concerned about the growing number of ‘Superbugs’?