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By saturating environment with antibiotics, we've helped 'superbugs' thrive Date published: 2/7/2010
NO NEED to picture a cape or other costume when thinking of superbugs. These villains are microscopic. And a long time ago, we had any number of means to defeat this enemy. But over the years, they have evolved to become quite difficult to eradicate. Antibiotic-resistant (or drug-resistant) bacteria are becoming a significant public health problem around the world, especially in the United States. It wasn't always this way. Penicillin was discovered in 1928 and first used as an antibiotic in humans after World War II, and at that time, it could treat dozens of bacteria that cause infections. Over the years, however, penicillin has lost its muscle, and many bacteria no longer respond. Bacteria evolve quickly, developing random gene mutations in response to an evolutionary pressure--the pressure is our overuse of antibiotics. Once a gene mutation allows for the ability to withstand an antibiotic, bacteria can grow, thrive and even pass that gene to its neighbors (called plasmid exchange). This process of mutation and sharing among bacteria create colonies of bugs that will no longer respond to a single antibiotic or even whole classes of antibiotics. We have saturated our environment with antibiotics--in livestock production and through frivolous visits to the doctor. We challenged bacteria to evolve, and the bacteria A BIG LEAP IN PREVALENCE The first drug-resistant bacteria was discovered in 1947, only four years after penicillin was first used. Derivatives of penicillin --methicillin and oxacillin -- initially treated staph infections that were penicillin-resistant. But in 1961, MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was discovered and now, half of all staph aureus infections in the U.S. are MRSA. This initially was an infection that was observed only in hospital settings, but between 1999-2006, cases of MRSA increased dramatically and began being detected in persons never hospitalized--the cases were also known as community acquired infections. Cases to this day continue to increase in frequency. While the vast majority of community-acquired MRSA causes skin infections that can be treated successfully, there are 20,000 deaths each year from MRSA--usually in dialysis patients and those who have MRSA as a complication of surgery. This one bug has quite the price tag: Treating MRSA can cost $3,000 to $35,000 per infection.
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