Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5185
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Publication type: news
Smith D.
Antibiotic resistance study rings alarm bells
Sydney Morning Herald 2006 Jun 20
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/antibiotic-resistance-study-rings-alarm-bells/2006/06/19/1150701484576.html
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:
Due to the mis-use/over-use of antibiotics, the problem of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria has spread from the hospitals to the general community.
Because the medical profession cannot be relied upon to assume the role, governments must choose to become more actively involved in the education of the public in the proper use of antibiotics, if there is to be any chance of slowing the growth of this serious problem.
Full text:
Antibiotic resistance study rings alarm bells
Deborah Smith, Science Editor
June 20, 2006
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HEALTHY people could be the source of many of the antibiotic resistance genes that have led to the rise of superbugs in hospitals.
A Sydney study has found that more than 90 per cent of the harmless E. coli bacteria in the guts of healthy people were multi-drug resistant.
Ruth Hall, of the University of Sydney, and Hatch Stokes, of Macquarie University, said the findings highlighted the serious consequences of overuse of antibiotics in general.
“We have polluted the world with antibiotic resistance genes,” said Professor Stokes. “They are common everywhere.”
Professor Hall said she was surprised by the results, with some E. coli samples from the healthy people, who were entering a Sydney hospital for a minor treatment, found to be resistant to up to five drugs.
While this was not a problem for a healthy person, the resistance genes could be easily transferred to more harmful bacteria that also passed through the gut, such as salmonella, which could then pose a serious risk to patients with poor immune function.
Professor Stokes said people had wondered how resistance genes found their way into hospitals. “One answer is they walk in with the patients,” he said.
Professor Hall will present the team’s results at the annual conference of the Australian Society for Microbiology next month.
In the 1980s she was the first to discover how bacteria collect and swap resistance genes – using mobile genetic elements known as integrons – and she will be honoured as “one of the few Australian researchers who has been responsible for the development of an entire research field”.
Professor Hall will also discuss her recent discovery of another gene transfer mechanism that bacteria use.
“It is like another tool in their tool kit which is very efficient at bringing new genes into organisms that are already multiple-antibiotic resistant,” she said.
It showed bacteria were extremely resourceful at finding ways to get around new antibiotics, she said.
The team studied the stools of 65 people who had not taken any antibiotics in the previous six months. All had E coli that either contained at least one resistance gene or integrons that allowed them to acquire and exchange resistance genes.
The high level of multi-drug resistance in the E. coli was found in a more detailed examination of a smaller number of samples.
Professor Stokes said the same results could be expected at any hospital or any city in Australia. Overuse of antibiotics meant bugs with resistance genes flourished, and then were able to spread their genes to other, unrelated species.
Earlier this month a World Health Organisation expert, Professor Richard Laing, told a medical conference in Canberra it was possible there would be no effective antibiotics left within 50 years if overuse was not prevented.
