Bacteria can multiply and spread rapidly. Human bacteria are carried by their human hosts wherever humans travel – land, sea or air. The newest, novel types of threatening, antibiotic-resistant bacteria reside in India, Pakistan and the U.K., yet they are only hours away by jet from anywhere in the world.
Bacteria, Antibiotics and Infectious Disease
Bacteria are simple cells. Bacteria survive and prosper despite many harsh conditions. Microbes have grown, survived and adapted for millions of years according to scientific evidence, and they have battled each with chemical inhibitory products (natural antibiotics) long before humans saw or discovered them.
Doctors, chemists and scientists discovered how to grow microbes on Petri dishes. They cultured microbes and learned how to identify and name them. Other scientists isolated and extracted some of these microbial chemical weapons or antibiotics.
First discovered were sulfa drugs, then penicillin, streptomycin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol – the antibiotic list grew longer and longer. Antibiotics were called "wonder drugs". Often there was complete healing and cure for venereal diseases (such as syphilis and gonorrhea), festering wounds, pustules, boils, abscesses, pneumonia, urinary tract and blood infections, meningitis – these infectious dieases were all vulnerable targets for the antibiotic armory.
Antibiotic disk on agar tests (today known as the Kirby-Bauer-Sherris technique) regularly showed susceptible bacteria. Animals and humans were treated, cured and added to the book of medical victories. But when "antibiotic resistance" appeared and expanded – scientists were stunned and shocked.
Superbug Antibiotic Resistance, What is It?
Antibiotic resistance happens when microbes block, degrade, inactivate, modify and destroy antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance means that microbes that formerly were inhibited and killed are no longer susceptible to the antibiotic. These antibiotic-resistant "supermicrobes" or superbugs now grow well even when large doses of antibiotic are present in animal or human tissues and organs.
Superbugs – New Strains of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
The newest antibiotic-resistant bacteria are described in the 11 August 2010 issue of The Lancet as Gram-negative, enteric (intestinal) superbugs from India, Pakistan and the U.K. These bacteria carry a beta-lactamase gene for making metallo-beta-lactamase (an enzyme) that breaks an important bond in certain antibiotics and inactivates those antibiotics. When this gene and its enzyme are active, multiple potentially-useful antibiotics are inactivated and made useless.
Many bacteria carry additional resistance genes and factors (on small pieces of extrachromosomal DNA called plasmids) – they are "superbugs" or very antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Superbug bacteria like MRSA staphylococci and NDM-1 enterics are resistant to almost all antibiotics. A detailed summary of The Lancet's superbugs and NDM-1 antibiotic-resistant enterics article is useful for experts and those in need of more information, however the summary below should suffice for most people.
Superbugs – Coming to the United States?
Superbugs of the NDM-1 type are the most recent antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could arrive in the U.S. anytime, anywhere. They already could be here. Air transport of antibiotic-resistant microbes to anywhere on the planet can occur in less than a day or two.
Microbes, in general, can multiply rapidly the in GI tract and skin. Microbes are easily shed and passed from one person to another in numerous and various ways. Microbial spread may be of rapid and epidemic proportions, or infections may fester and spread more slowly.
In the U.S. Atlanta's CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and medical communities are fully alerted as to the nature and epidemiology of these bacteria. Ongoing alerts and updates on antibiotic resistance and epidemics are regularly issued by the CDC. The necessary steps needed to treat and isolate infected and diseased people will be taken. Persons at greatest risk of these and related infections include surgical patients and those with diseases which compromise host immune responses.
Superbugs – Handwashing and Other Routine Health Measures
Here are some steps for protection:
- Wash hands routinely. Handwashing is one of the best and proven infection control practices. Handwashing before eating and after using the toilet is always important since many common-use equipment or facilities are contaminated with potential viral and bacterial disease agents.
- Maintain general good health by adequate nutrition, exercise and rest all of which promote optimal body defense, repair and rehabilitation. Good nutrition, exercise and sleep help the body to deal with adversity and microbial diseases.
- Antibiotic use should be limited to prescribed amount, dosages and frequency as recommended by a licensed medical doctor.
- Antibiotic use, when prescribed, should be complete (all days required with no skipping) and taken as directed, for the time prescribed. Antibiotics used this way work best and help prevent the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Date-expired antibiotics should be discarded.
- Antibiotics prescribed for someone else should not be used by you or anyone else.
Being an informed and healthy individual requires regular and purposeful action – be that kind of person.
Sources
CDC. Antibiotic / Antimicrobial Resistance. Accessed, 12 August, 2010
Dionisio, F. et al. "Plasmids Spread Very Fast in Heterogeneous Bacterial Communities." Genetics. 2002 December; 162(4): 1525–1532
Frieden, T.R. Antibiotic Resistance and the Threat to Public Health. U.S. House Hearings, Energy-Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health, Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Kumarasamy, K. et al. " Emergence of a new antibiotic resistance mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK: a molecular, biological, and epidemiological study." The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Early Online Publication, 11 August 2010 doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70143-2
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used for diagnosis or to guide treatment without the opinion of a health professional. Any reader who is concerned about his or her health should contact a doctor for advice.
Donald Reinhardt - Think, read, write & live well always. DJR has a PhD in Biology/Microbiology & is a Fellow & Diplomate, ASM Amer Acad Micro.
Join the Conversation