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What happens when bacteria evolves to the point where antibiotics are no longer effective? One Israeli company is working hard... Embedded video. No You Tube link at present

Epidemiologists — people who track diseases — use an expression: Seek and ye shall find. It's a reminder that sometimes when you see a phenomenon, it may not be entirely new. It may be that you've only just noticed it. Well, the world seems to be having a major seek-and-ye-shall-find moment right now with a worrisome new superbug. In late December, reports emerged that the mcr-1 gene, which confers resistance to an important antibiotic of last-resort, has been found in bacteria previously collected in the Netherlands, Laos, Algeria, Thailand, and France. There is reason to believe it may also be...

Some harmful bacteria are increasingly resistant to treatment with antibiotics. A discovery might be able to help the antibiotics treat the disease. A soil sample from a national park in eastern Canada has produced a compound that appears to reverse antibiotic resistance in dangerous bacteria. Scientists at McMaster University in Ontario discovered that the compound almost instantly turned off a gene in several harmful bacteria that makes them highly resistant to treatment with a class of antibiotics used to fight so-called superbug infections. The compound, called aspergillomarasmine A, or AMA, was extracted from a common fungus found in soil and...

Nicotinamide, commonly known as vitamin B3, may help the innate immune system kill antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria, the so-called "superbugs". In lab work done with mice and human blood, researchers found high doses of the vitamin increased the ability of immune cells to kill the bacteria by 1,000 times.The discovery opens the door to a new arsenal of tools for dealing with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, such as those caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus or MRSA, that have killed thousands of people around the world. They are increasing in hospitals and nursing homes, and also rising in prisons, among athletes, people in...

A new superbug that is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has entered UK hospitals, experts warn. They say bacteria which make an enzyme called NDM-1 travelled back with NHS patients who had gone abroad to countries like India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery. Although there have only been about 50 cases identified in the UK so far, scientists fear it will go global. Tight surveillance and new drugs are needed says Lancet Infectious Diseases. NDM-1 can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and it makes them resistant to one of the most powerful groups of...

4 at Duke get drug-resistant H1N1 By KEITH UPCHURCH DURHAM -- Four patients at Duke University Medical Center, all from North Carolina, have tested positive for a type of swine flu that's resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, and three have died, health officials announced Friday at a news conference in Raleigh. The fourth patient, a woman, is still a patient at Duke and ''is doing much better,'' they said. Although the four had the H1N1 virus, they all had other medical problems, so it's uncertain if the swine flu caused their deaths, they said. All four were in an...

Five patients on a unit for people with severe underlying health conditions at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, were diagnosed with swine flu that is resistant to the drug. Three appear to have acquired the infection in hospital, the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) said. Two of the five have recovered and have been discharged from hospital, one is in critical care and two are being treated on the ward. The service said the resistant strain does not appear to be more severe than the swine flu virus circulating since the spring. All patients on the...

Health officials say a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu has spread between hospital patients. Five patients on a unit treating people with severe underlying health conditions at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff were infected. Three appear to have acquired the infection in hospital. They are thought to be the first confirmed cases of person-to-person transmission of a Tamiflu-resistant strain in the world. There have been several dozen reports around the world of people developing resistance to Tamiflu while taking the drug - but they have not passed on the strain to others. Just one possible cases of person-to-person transmission...

Canada has recorded a case of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu virus, in a Quebec man who had been given the drug to prevent infection. Meanwhile, Japan revealed Tuesday it had found a second such case of Tamiflu resistance, in a person who has no ties to the country’s earlier reported case.

U.S. health officials are stepping up testing of swine flu cases for Tamiflu resistance, now that an American has come down with a resistant strain. A California teenager was diagnosed with swine flu last month after arriving in Hong Kong on June 11, and has since recovered. The 16-year-old is a San Francisco resident and likely was infected in the United States, health officials said Tuesday. Her illness was mild, but noteworthy. She's just the third person in the world to be diagnosed with a strain resistant to Tamiflu, the primary pharmaceutical weapon against the new virus. The other two...

Scientists Strike Blow In Superbugs Struggle ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2007) — Scientists from The University of Manchester have pioneered new ways of tweaking the molecular structure of antibiotics -- an innovation that could be crucial in the fight against powerful super bugs. The work was led by chemical biologist Dr Jason Micklefield in collaboration with geneticist Professor Colin Smith. Scientists working in The School of Chemistry and the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre have paved the way for the development of new types of antibiotics capable of fighting increasingly resistant bacteria. Micklefield, Smith and colleagues were the first to engineer the biosynthesis...

Source: Society of Chemical Industry Date: August 1, 2007 Instant Steam Takes On Antibiotic Resistant 'Superbugs' Like MRSA Science Daily — A method for making instant steam, without the need for electricity, promises to be useful for tackling antibiotic resistant 'superbugs' like MRSA and C. difficile, as well as removing chewing gum from pavements and powering environmentally friendly cars, reports Nina Morgan in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. 'The value of instant steam lies in creating truly portable steam that can be generated intermittently on demand,' says Dave Wardle, business development director at Oxford Catalysts. The company...

OSHKOSH, Wis. - A new combat truck with a V-shaped bottom designed to withstand blasts from roadside bombs is performing with such success in Iraq that the U.S. military is pressing a Wisconsin company and others to churn out hundreds more in the coming months. About 200 prototypes of the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles have been deployed in Iraq since 2004, said Capt. Jeff Landis, spokesman for the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. No Marine has died while in one of the trucks, Landis said. "This is the best vehicle available for safety and survivability," he said. "The MRAP...

Drug resistant TB 'more severe' Patients must complete a full course of drugs to cure TB The problem of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis may be even more severe than previously thought, experts warn. A survey of 79 countries by the World Health Organization published in the Lancet found TB drug resistance in virtually every one. Particularly high levels of resistance were seen in regions of the former Soviet Union and parts of China. About a third of the world's population is infected with the TB bug, with 8.9 million developing TB each year. In 2004, the respiratory disease caused 1.7 million deaths...

Health experts are to hold an emergency meeting in Johannesburg this week, following the discovery of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis. The strain - known as extreme drug-resistant TB - has horrified World Health Organisation doctors. In one outbreak in South Africa, 52 of 53 patients died within weeks of becoming infected. 'This new strain leaves us facing a nightmare,' said Paul Nunn, coordinator of the WHO's drug-resistance unit. 'It is resistant to nearly every drug in our arsenal. We are now on the threshold of the appearance of a strain of TB that is resistant to every medicine...

Toronto — Researchers in Vietnam have reported two additional cases of H5N1 avian flu infection in which the virus developed resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. While the findings will likely lead to concern over the future efficacy of the drug — the main weapon in the limited arsenal against pandemic flu — influenza experts were quick to caution against over-interpreting the results. But they said the findings raise serious concerns about whether the current dosing regime — which is based on experience with regular human flu strains — is adequate to combat the infection caused by this virulent avian...

New Tamiflu-resistant bird flu cases stir fears 14:29 22 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Shaoni Bhattacharya New England Journal of Medicine Fears have been raised over more evidence suggesting that the deadly H5N1 avian influenza can mutate into strains resistant to the frontline flu drug Tamiflu. Two more patients with drug-resistant bird flu have been documented by researchers in Vietnam. The two patients, of eight studied, died from H5N1 influenza A, despite treatment with Tamiflu (oseltamivir) having been started early in one of them. The first case of Tamiflu-resistant bird flu was reported in October 2005 . Although the case...

Significant numbers of chickens on sale in UK shops are contaminated with superbugs, a scientific survey commissioned by BBC One's Real Story suggests.Of the British-grown chickens analysed, over half were contaminated with multi-drug resistant E.coli which is immune to the effects of three or more antibiotics. More than a third of the 147 samples, which included overseas and UK produced chicken, had E.coli germs resistant to the important antibiotic Trimethoprim which is used to treat bladder infections. The Health Protection Agency scientists testing the meat also found 12 chickens had antibiotic resistant Campylobacter. And VRE, or Vancomycin Resistant Enteroccci, were...

Despite miserable job-approval ratings, California lawmakers this year derailed or defeated nearly every bill aimed at overhauling how they campaign for office or conduct business in the Capitol. The casualties included bills to reduce the influence of special interests by publicly funding campaigns, and to make legislative races more competitive by redrawing district boundaries. Of 16 legislative or political reforms tracked by The Bee before the session ended Aug. 31, only three reached the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not yet decided whether to sign them. Even the Republican governor, hugely popular with voters, found tough sledding in...

Drug-resistant germ spreading outside U.S. hospitals Thursday July 15, 1:46 AM By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A drug-resistant "superbug" found in hospitals has a close cousin that is affecting athletes, prisoners and small children in growing numbers across the United States, disease experts said on Wednesday. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA can become fatal if not treated with the right antibiotics, said Dr. Daniel Jernigan of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "MRSA is showing up in places it had never been seen before -- as a predominant cause of skin disease among...