Superbugs arise

[Timelord]

This was copied from a long article with adverts & other unrelated bits. there may be a bias but it is interesting all the same:-

(NaturalNews) It is no longer a secret that drug-resistant bacteria are rapidly emerging and spreading all around the world as a result of the continued overuse and abuse of antibiotic drugs in both conventional medicine and industrial agriculture. But now it appears that the genes responsible for spawning these so-called "superbugs" are also spreading, and turning otherwise mild conditions such as throat infections into deadly killers.

Known as NDM-1, or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1, these genes basically hitch a ride on mobile DNA loops known as plasmids, and latch themselves onto various bacteria whenever and wherever they find an opportunity. The end result of this parasite-like invasion into bacteria is that even largely innocuous microbes can become extremely virulent and fully able to outsmart even the strongest antibiotic drugs available.

"Things as common as strep throat or a child's scratched knee could once again kill," said Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) at a recent meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, about the phenomenon. "Hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy and care of preterm infants would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake."

According to a recent report by Bloomberg, the spread of NDM-1 and antibiotic-resistant superbugs has become so extreme that even beneficial bacterial, also commonly referred to as "probiotics" or "gut microflora," are being affected as well. And as long as antibiotics continue to be abused in the careless way that they now are globally, the situation will only worsen over time until eventually even the most minor infections and injuries become fatal.

"If this latest bug becomes entrenched in our hospitals, there is really nothing we can turn to," said Donald E. Low, head of the public health lab in Toronto, Ontario. "Its potential is to be probably greater than any other organism."