Unchecked superbugs could kill 10 million a year, cost $100 trillion

[natina]

Unchecked superbugs could kill 10 million a year, cost $100 trillion


Drug-resistant superbugs could kill an extra 10 million people a year and cost up to $100 trillion by 2050 if their rampant global spread is not halted, according to a British government-commissioned review.
Such infections already kill hundreds of thousands of people a year and the trend is growing, the review said, adding: "The importance of effective antimicrobial drugs cannot be overplayed."
Former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill, who led the work, noted that in Europe and the United States alone around 50,000 people currently die each year from infections caused by superbug forms of bacteria such as E.coli.
"Unless something is done by 2050, that number could become 10 million people losing their lives each year from then onwards," he told a briefing in London.
Antimicrobials are a class of drugs that includes antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitics and antifungals.
The review of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is based on analysis by two sets of researchers, RAND and KPMG, estimating the future impact of AMR under different scenarios for six common infections -- three bacterial infections, plus malaria, HIV and tuberculosis.
But it excludes indirect effects of growing drug resistance which could "cast medicine back to the dark ages", the review said, by making routine procedures more dangerous.
The problem posed by infections developing resistance to such drugs has been a feature of medicine since Alexander Fleming's discovery of the first antibiotic, penicillin, in Britain in 1928.
But it has worsened in recent years as multi-drug-resistant bugs have developed and drug companies have reduced investment in an unprofitable field.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/unchecked-superbugs-could-kill-10-million-a-year-cost-dollar100-trillion/ar-BBgD1He

[timmartin]

Had two superbugs that spread from my feet to my lungs.
Fun. Laid me up for six months and almost killed me.
I think that this is how civilization is going to end.Those little bugs have one function and no conscience. We are doomed.

[Dahlia Babe Ailhad]

Hi natina,

In 2009, i caught the swine flu (H1 N1).

I avoided the hospital and did an old, old, old and relatively forgotten-about/ignored self-treatment. I was only really sick for about 4 days with all the severe symptoms. My very high fever broke by the next morning after the first day, i was feeling much better but still really weak for about a week and a half. Over the course of maybe two weeks i was all better. NO, it was not a regular flu.
I have full faith in the treatment and have used it to ward off any further "bugs" since that time.
I am not fearful of superbugs.
I am, however, very fearful of saying what it is because of the FDA, and seeing how HU warns people USA laws must be respected on the forum, i won't be flapping my mouth.
All i will say is that the human immune system is really, really incredible.
Besides, when i tell people what it is, they laugh at me and say, "That's disgusting. I would NEVER do that."

When i explain that they ALREADY have done it, without knowing they did, they don't want to know any more.

So i say to them, "Well, then, enjoy being sick."


Babe,
xoxo

[sukumvit boy]

Good review . Thanks , glad you are recovering!

[natina]

U.S. Scientists Discover Powerful New Antibiotic



American scientists have made a major health breakthrough with the discovery of a new type of antibiotic that seems to be even better than existing drugs. And it was found in a pile of soil.

The experimental antibiotic, called teixobactin, is being touted as a “game changer” and is very good news considering the number of infections which have evolved to become resistant to existing antibiotics.

The discovery was made by researchers at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts who outlined their findings in the science journal Nature on Wednesday. It is the first time in 25 years that a major new antibiotic discovery has been made.

http://www.newsweek.com/new-antibiotic-found-dirt-298216

Teixobactin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teixobactin)


Antibiotic Pulled From Dirt Ends 25-Year Drug Drought

Scientists have discovered an antibiotic capable of fighting infections that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, a breakthrough that could lead to the field’s first major new drug in more than a quarter-century.

The experimental drug, which was isolated from a sample of New England dirt, is called teixobactin. It hasn’t yet been tested in people, though it cured all mice infected with antibiotic-resistant staphylococci bacteria that usually kills 90 percent of the animals, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. Bacteria appear to have a particularly difficult time developing resistance to the drug, potentially overcoming a major problem with existing antibiotics.

“It should be used, if it gets successfully developed, as broadly as possible, because it is exceptionally well-protected from resistance development,” said Kim Lewis, one of the study’s authors and a professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Lewis estimated that it may take more than 30 years for bacteria to become resistant to teixobactin. He is also a co-founder of NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals LLC, which is developing the drug.

Teixobactin strikes multiple targets, including cell walls, said Tanja Schneider, a lead author of the study and professor at the University of Bonn in Germany. Since the lipid structures it attacks don’t evolve as quickly as frequently mutating proteins, it may take the bacteria longer than usual to develop a survival tactic.
Source: BSIP/UIG via Getty Images




While the new drug, teixobactin, hasn’t yet been tested in people, it cured all mice... Read More

‘All Lethal’

“Not only one target is attacked by teixobactin but multiple targets, and they are all lethal,” Schneider said on a conference call with reporters. For bacteria it will be “very hard to modify this target, especially this part of the molecule that’s bound by teixobactin,” she said.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/antibiotic-breakthrough-ends-25-year-discovery-drought.html