Scared of antibiotic resistance? Here’s how to get more scared
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Much news and many public health warnings have stressed in recent years the rising rates of antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- and the fact that science is not coming up with new replacement antibiotics at anywhere near a fast enough clip.
People who want to learn more about the topic can go to two Southland events on Sunday at which UCLA infectious disease specialist Dr. Brad Spellberg will be talking about his book, ‘Rising Plague,’ which chronicles, among other things, the experiences that he and his colleagues have had treating patients with antibiotic-resistant infections and the issue of the dwindling supply of new drugs.
In Hollywood:
11 a.m. Sunday
Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
In Costa Mesa:
4:30 p.m. Sunday
Costa Mesa Neighborhood Center
1845 Park St., Costa Mesa
The drug-resistance story is a frightening one, though it’s not new. Shortly after WWII, penicillin broke onto the medical scene as a miracle drug that could drag sick patients out of the jaws of death. It didn’t take many years for the first cases of penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria to show up. Even Alexander Fleming (who discovered the drug after noticing bacteria didn’t grow near a mold that had contaminated a petri dish) noted this happening, according this account. In his 1945 Nobel speech he said: ‘It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body.’
When penicillin started to fail, other drugs replaced it, many garnered from molds or by chemically altering already known drugs gleaned from natural sources.
This time, though, we’re running out of drugs.
Take a peek at Spellberg’s book, to be published in September. Its full name is ‘Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them.’
Read more about the problem at the website for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in a 2004 report ‘Bad Bugs, No Drugs.’
-- Rosie Mestel