Off Topic Superbugs and Lack of Antibiotic Production (Scary stuff)

I remember reading about this at the end of last year......nothing being done and it does not bode well at all.....pretty scary stuff for the years ahead

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36321394

 

This is very similar to the article I read in December

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21702647

 

It

It is scary stuff alright and will need global co-operation (and funding) to deal with it.

I note that one of the suggestions for a source of funding is 'extra taxes on pharmaceutical companies not investing in antibiotic research'.

Given the difficulty we have in getting multinationals to pay any tax at all, this might not be realistic.

I blame Stan.

 

Guilty. And unrepentant.

The answer to this lies not in traditional antibiotics but in immuno genetics. Make it profitable and a range of answers will be provided.

 

Immuno genetics.. Are you proposing personal or semi- porsonal medicine Stan.

The rite of the rich?

 

Not proposing, just semi predicting. Health is a commodity, the rich can afford it more easily than the poor, in lifestyle choices and access to treatment and advice. I don't like that, but my preferences don't really make a difference.

You know an infinite amount more than me about the science, what's your take? I think we had a discussion on this on the conspiracy thread ages ago, I did some looking around and was surprised to see how much Pharma is actually investing in antibiotics. But since the mechanics of this site have gone to **** I can't go back and find it.

 

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I am seriously worried about the level of black market/counterfeit antibiotics...that even we in the west are buying...cheap on the internet.

The use of antibiotics in animal feeds is unforgivable too....all for the name of profit.



It is causing the malarial problem...where increasing areas are becoming resistant to standard and even newly invented anti malarial treatment......
It is true that we haven't found a new class of antibiotics in many a year...but I understand some are in the pipeline.

I believe in the power of invention... I am confident the power of science will over come the problem...even if we do not know today how to do it

 

I'm confident in the ability of scientific and inventive minds to come up with the solution, Beth, but I'm not confident that 'the market' will deliver it.

 

Why not? Name me a medical advance that the 'market' has not made available to many more people than would otherwise benefit. You know me mate, my heart lies a long way from the profit motive, but given the work that I do I frequently have to test myself on this. I cannot think of a single state or academic inspired medicine that has been funded, developed, tested and made available through public funding, including Soviet Russia and Communist China. The Soviets got good at fast, efficient, factory line surgery on things like cataracts. The Cubans had a great health system until shameful embargoes on medicines forced them down a 'traditional' route. But none of them have innovated anything. My company didn't discover the first forms of insulin, but we found out how to mass produce it (an incredibly complex process which is why only a few companies can produce decent quality stuff, despite lack of patent protection. Pfizer didn't discover penicillin but they, again, learned how to make enough to save thousands of lives in WW2. The problem isn't the Pharma industry it's much deeper and more intransigent than that.

Wow, have you got time on your hands or has the search function been fixed for mods? Cheers. Just read the last couple of pages of that which is health care related, I'll delve back in as I think there is some anti biotic specific stuff in there some where. What a great thread I had a lot of fun on that. Where is Pils, a a real gent?

 

I don't doubt the industry's ability and inclination to mass produce whatever the solution may be, I doubt its willingness to commit to the research necessary to discover it. How have we got to the point where no new antibiotics have been developed for decades, and where some kind of bacterial apocalypse is predicted in a few more? All markets need regulation.

 

I've been taking an antibiotic daily for nearly 20 years and I'm still here!

 

You're part of the problem then!

 

He's probably been carted away by some secretive goverment agency, and is being held captive in some underground bunker being force-fed subversive propaganda to espouse upon the nation prior to the Brexit referendum.....

 

Stupid remark

 

Not entirely Durbar Antibiotics are usually given in courses.there is no advantage in a long course...and the only thing it achieves is a tolerance with in your body to that drug/ antibiotic. This is the scenario are talking about.

 

After a double transplant 20 years ago doctors want me to take an antibiotic daily. I'm not going to tell them I am part of the problem!

 

I've just read through the entire conspiracy theory thread because I thought I'd had a discussion with Pils on there about anti biotic development, but it must have been somewhere else, drat. But it's a hoot to read through again. I remember having a look and surprising myself in how much is actually being spent on antibiotic research by big companies. From where I sit pharmaceuticals is a (rightly) incredibly heavily regulated industry. I don't really understand how you can regulate to force an industry to discover something. You can incentivise it though.

 

My response was a light-hearted one Durbar. As you have lasted 20 years since your transplants, you and the doctors must be getting something right. My understanding, though, of the best use of antibiotics is, as Beth says, that they should be used in short courses. Doctors have been much criticised for over-prescribing them, sometimes for viral infections upon which they have no effect, just to satisfy their patients' wishes for some medication.