RT NewsA lack of new antibiotics, coupled with the over-prescription of existing ones, is making many formerly routine diseases untreatable, according to a new report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
At least two million people in the US are infected each year – and 23,000 of those die – from bacteria that does not respond to treatment by usual or any antibiotics, claims the Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States 2013 report.
“We are approaching a cliff. If we don’t take steps to slow or stop drug resistance, we will fall back to a time when simple infections killed people,” said Michael Bell, Deputy Director of CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, and one of the report’s authors.
Among the diseases the report labeled an ‘Urgent threat’ are C.difficile, a form of severe diarrhea that kills 14,000 people per year, and gonorrhea, as nearly a third of the 800,000 estimated annual infections are with strains that do not respond to at least some antibiotics.
The most terrifying perhaps is Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a relatively new and rare but deadly infection that cannot be tackled by “drugs of last resort” (medicines that are purposely reserved for treatment courses when all else has failed).
Out of an estimated 9,000 cases of CRE each year, 600 people die.
The report says that by far the most important reason for the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria is the incorrect prescription of antibiotics by doctors and improper use by patients.
Half of all antibiotic prescriptions in the US are unnecessary – a precaution, or a result of misdiagnosis or ignorance about the ability of the drug to treat a certain disease. A course of a drug weeds out certain types of bacteria, but leaves a minority untouched. The surviving bacteria then multiply, creating a new strain of the disease that is no longer susceptible to that medicine. The problem is made worse when patients stop their antibiotics course too early – often as soon as they feel better – as the remaining microorganisms then have a better chance of escaping.
“Every time antibiotics are used in any setting, bacteria evolve by developing resistance and that process can happen with alarming speed. These drugs are a precious, limited resource—the more we use antibiotics today, the less likely we are to have effective antibiotics tomorrow,” said Steve Solomon, Director of the CDC’s Office of Antimicrobial Resistance.
MRSA (Image from cdc.gov)
Another breeding ground for superbugs is livestock farms – the destination of up to 80 percent of all antibiotics – where animals are routinely prescribed drugs, mostly as a preventative measure and to make sure they grow as large as possible. The strains produced in those circumstances are then passed on to humans, creating additional danger.
Estimating the exact number of people who have been infected and died from a drug-resistant bacteria is by nature an imprecise activity.
But the authors say they are not scaremongering.
“This is a bare minimum, a very conservative estimate,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Friedman, noting that the authors have tried to separate cases when the drug-resistant infection was directly responsible for death, as opposed to a contributing factor.
“The actual number of infections and the actual number of deaths are certainly higher,” states the report.
One of the problems of drug-resistance is the relative scarcity of new antibiotics. Until the current ones stop working in sufficient numbers, pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to develop them for currently curable diseases. The report urges the government to invest more money in antibiotics as a matter of national importance, though several programs are already in place.
Turberculosis (Image from cdc.gov)
But even if US doctors and companies take every measure available, there is only so much they can do in a globalized world.
In countries such as China and Russia, where antibiotics are freely available over-the-counter and are consumed by an order of magnitude more often than in the United States, drug-resistant strains are emerging at a much faster rate (and involve diseases like tuberculosis that are already more deadly). And these strains are sure to spread throughout the globe.
“We’re facing a catastrophe,” said Helen Boucher, a Tufts University expert and spokeswoman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
That is why people should learn to make colloidal silver. It is impossible for bacteria, viruses, or fungus to become resistant to silver antibiotics. Big Pharma uses scare tactics to prevent people from doing this. You will turn blue if you use impure water, or rods that are not PURE silver. Paul Carrison (sic) turned blue because he added salt to the water trying to speed up the colloidal silver process. It has to be be PURE distilled water, PURE silver rods, and a sterilized mason jar. Do some research. You can use it for your pets, chickens, whatever. I know I won’t just lay down, and die!!
All of the idiots who ran to the doctor begging for antibiotics every time they got the sniffles are going to die from the common cold.
I don’t care. I’ve been telling people not to take those things since the seventies, because I always thought they would weaken the immune system. I rarely get sick, because I don’t take pharmaceuticals. The last time I was sick was back in 2002 after the town I was living in was bombed with chemtrails, and I think my avoidance of antibiotics (and pharmaceuticals in general) is the reason for this.
“That which cannot kill us makes us stronger.” — Nietzsche
You are correct, Jolly Roger. Antibiotics weaken our immune systems. That doesn’t mean they don’t seem to “work.” But we pay a heavy price for it; we will “catch” more and more viruses (which are opportunistic and scavenge/feast on impurities in our body), take more and more drugs to “combat” the immune response in our body, because we do not understand how our body is designed to work. The ONLY answer is to build and support a strong immune system, stop taking in poisons (to the best of our ability) and stop buying into this fear-mongering.
Just what do people expect when people are eating animals that are pumped up on antibiotics and everything else they feed those animals at those factory farms.
Waiting for the leftists to call for a ban on antibiotics and allopathic doctors. I can’t hear the outcry, can you? If 23,000 people died as a result of these antibiotic resistant bugs, why isn’t Dianne Fine Swine screaming her head off-or does that not fit the anti-gun agenda?? I believe the number is around 100,000 deaths yearly due to medical practice and Big Pharma’s drugs. But that’s right, a whole lot of the Congress critters have stock there, now don’t they? So their bottom line IS their bottom line, don’t ya know?!!