Antibiotic resistance: World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' - BBC News

Oh ****. Years of greedy agrobusiness pumping livestock with antibiotics and overly prescribing antibiotics and this is what we get.

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Scientists warn the world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era" after discovering superbugs resistant to the strongest drug available. Dr Elizabeth Tayler outlines just how serious these developments are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGpFANXkpXI

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Originally Posted by Reuters Alarming new "superbug" gene found in animals and people in China

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Originally Posted by Time Newly Discovered Bacteria Can Resist All Antibiotics

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New "Superbug" Gene Found in Animals and People in China:Scientists alarmed by potential spread of gene that makes bacteria highly resistant to last-resort antibiotics

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According to Margaret Chan,1 Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance is now a global health crisis. In a recent telebriefing she said the problem is "reaching dangerously high levels" in all parts of the world and may lead to "the end of modern medicine as we know it." Already, multi-drug-resistant typhoid, tuberculosis, and gonorrhea kill hundreds of thousands of people each year. And it looks like it's only going to get worse, until or unless dramatic and rapid changes in policy and public awareness about antibiotics occur. Scientists have been warning about this for a number of years already, but now it seems the "antibiotic apocalypse" is really close at hand. Researchers recently discovered a new gene, called mcr-1, in pigs and people in China2,3,4 — a gene mutation that makes bacteria resistant to our last-resort class of antibiotics. Moreover, the resistance has "epidemic potential," as the rate of transfer between bacteria is exceptionally high. Polymoxin-Resistant Bacteria May Kill Tens of Millions in Coming Years Between 2011 and 2014, the researchers, led by Hua Liu from the South China Agricultural University, collected bacteria samples from: >Pork and chicken sold at open markets and grocery stores in four Chinese provinces >Pigs at slaughter across four Chinese provinces >1,322 patients being treated for infections at two Chinese hospitals Fifteen percent of raw meats and about 20 percent of slaughtered animals had the mcr-1 gene, and the number of positive samples increased with each passing year. Disturbingly, mcr-1 was also found in 16 patients being treated for infections. As reported by Scientific American: "Researchers ... found the gene, called mcr-1, on plasmids — mobile DNA that can be easily copied and transferred between different bacteria. This suggests 'an alarming potential' for it to spread and diversify between bacterial populations, they said. The team already has evidence of the gene being transferred between common bacteria such as E.coli ... and Klesbsiella pneumoniae ... This suggests 'the progression from extensive drug resistance to pan drug resistance6 [i.e. bacteria resistant to all treatment] is inevitable,' they said. '(And) although currently confined to China, mcr-1 is likely to emulate other resistance genes ... and spread worldwide.'"

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