Antibiotic-Resistant Germs Target Of New White House Plan

[QuotaMan]

https://www.yahoo.com/health/white-house-unveils-plan-to-fight-114755568112.html

 

 

The White House on Friday announced a five-year plan to fight the threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria amid fears that once-treatable germs could become deadly.

 

Repeated exposure to antibiotics can lead germs to become resistant to the drugs, so that they are no longer effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that drug-resistant bacteria cause 23,000 deaths and 2 million illnesses each year in the United States.

 

The World Health Organization said last year that bacteria resistant to antibiotics have spread to every part of the world and might lead to a future where minor infections could kill. Antibiotic resistance also threatens animal health, agriculture, and the economy.

 

In an interview with WebMD, President Barack Obama said over-prescribing antibiotics is a serious problem.

 

"Studies have consistently shown that a lot of America’s antibiotic use is unnecessary," he said. He said he hopes his plan will create a system to show real-time rates of antibiotic use and where cases of drug resistance are being reported. "If we can see where these drugs are being over-prescribed, we can target our interventions where they’re needed most."

 

 

[CyberPro]

"The World Health Organization said last year that bacteria resistant to antibiotics have spread to every part of the world and might lead to a future where minor infections could kill. 

 

More on that. Thanks for the post

 

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2015/03/25/common_bacteria_on_verge_of_becoming_antibioticresistant_superbugs.html

Common bacteria on verge of becoming antibiotic-resistant superbugs

Antibiotic resistance is poised to spread globally among bacteria
frequently implicated in respiratory and urinary infections in hospital
settings, according to new research at Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis.

The study shows that two genes that confer resistance against a
particularly strong class of antibiotics can be shared easily among a
family of bacteria responsible for a significant portion of
hospital-associated infections.

Drug-resistant germs in the same family of bacteria recently infected
several patients at two Los Angeles hospitals. The infections have been
linked to medical scopes believed to have been contaminated with bacteria
that can resist carbapenems, potent antibiotics that are supposed to be
used only in gravely ill patients or those infected by resistant bacteria.

"Carbapenems are one of our last resorts for treating bacterial
infections, what we use when nothing else works," said senior author
Gautam Dantas, PhD, associate professor of pathology and immunology.
"Given what we know now, I don't think it's overstating the case to say
that for certain types of infections, we may be looking at the start of
the post-antibiotic era, a time when most of the antibiotics we rely on to
treat bacterial infections are no longer effective."

Dantas and other experts recommend strictly limiting the usage of
carbapenems to cases in which no other treatments can help.

The study, conducted by researchers at Washington University,
Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the National University of Sciences and
Technology in Pakistan, is available online in Emerging Infectious
Diseases.

The researchers studied a family of bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae,
which includes E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter. Some
strains of these bacteria do not cause illness and can help keep the body
healthy. But in people with weakened immune systems, infections with
carbapenem-resistant versions of these bacteria can be deadly.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named carbapenem-resistant
Enterobacteriaceae as one of the three most urgent threats among emerging
forms of antibiotic-resistant disease. Studies have shown the fatality
rate for these infections is above 50 percent in patients with weakened
immune systems.

Two genes are primarily responsible for carbapenem-resistant versions of
these disease-causing bacteria. One gene, KPC, was detected in New York in
2001 and quickly spread around most of the world, with the exception of
India, Pakistan and other South Asian countries. This gene was present in
the bacteria that recently contaminated medical equipment in a Los Angeles
hospital where two patients died.

A second carbapenem resistance gene, NDM-1, was identified in 2006 in New
Delhi, India. It was soon detected throughout South Asia, and most
patients infected by bacteria with NDM-1 have had an epidemiological link
to South Asian countries.

Dantas and his collaborators were curious about why the two resistance
genes seemed to be geographically exclusive. For the study, they compared
the genomes of carbapenem-resistant bacteria isolated in the United States
with those of carbapenem-resistant bacteria isolated in Pakistan.

Based on the apparent geographic exclusivity of the two resistance genes,
the scientists expected to find that bacteria from the two regions were
genetically different. Such differences could explain why the two
resistance genes weren't intermingling. But the researchers' results
showed otherwise. The bacteria's high genetic similarity suggests that the
antibiotic resistance genes could be shared easily between bacteria from
the two geographic regions.

The researchers also sequenced a special portion of bacterial genetic
material called plasmids. Most of a bacteria's DNA is found in its
chromosome, but bacteria also have many extra, smaller and circular bits
of DNA known as plasmids that easily can pass from one bacterial strain to
another. A plasmid is like a bacterial gene delivery truck; it is the
primary way antibiotic resistance genes spread between bacteria.

The researchers identified a few key instances in which the plasmids
carrying NDM-1 or KPC were nearly identical, meaning they easily could
facilitate the spread of antibiotic resistance between disease-causing
bacteria found in the United States and South Asia. Recent evidence
suggests that this intermingling already may be happening in parts of
China.

"Our findings also suggest it's going to get easier for strains of these
bacteria that are not yet resistant to pick up a gene that lets them
survive carbapenem treatment," Dantas said. "Typically, that's not going
to be a problem for most of us, but as drug-resistant forms of
Enterobacteriaceae become more widespread, the odds will increase that
we'll pass one of these superbugs on to a friend with a weakened immune
system who can really be hurt by them."

Source: Washington University School of Medicine