Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s inept leadership has spawned tragic tentacles as supply chain shortages threaten to kill cancer and COVID-19 patients unable to receive life-saving drugs. The FDA currently lists 109 drugs in short supply nationally. Three of the top five medications shortages are drugs used for chemotherapy, heart conditions and antibiotics. One of the scarce drugs is the anti-inflammatory tocilizumab, used by both cancer and COVID-19 patients. The scarcity has forced physicians to ration drugs. Dr. Patrick Jackson, an infectious-disease physician gives tocilizumab to chemotherapy patients while denying COVID patients because there simply isn’t enough to go around. Brian Spoehlhof,...

The next pandemic is already here – why our world leaders should take notice of antimicrobial resistance Infection prevention and control must underpin any future economy. The main thing we know about the G7 summit discussions is that the world response to Covid-19 will feature heavily. We need a joined-up approach to recovery, along with preparedness and resilience for the next pandemic. After all, despite history telling us that they occur once every 100 years, the next one is already here. Alongside climate change, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the most urgent global healthcare challenge for the human species. Micro-organisms such...

This is an RFK letter in response to a critic who did not address RFK's supporting information. (...) Similarly, in 1977, Boston University epidemiologists (and husband and wife) John and Sonja McKinlay published their seminal work in the Millbank Memorial Fund Quarterly on the role that vaccines (and other medical interventions) played in the massive 74% decline in mortality seen in the twentieth century: “The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the Decline of Mortality in the United States in the Twentieth Century.” In this article, which was formerly required reading in U.S. medical schools, the McKinlays pointed out that...

At a time when germs are growing more resistant to common antibiotics, many companies that are developing new versions of the drugs are hemorrhaging money and going out of business, gravely undermining efforts to contain the spread of deadly, drug-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic start-ups like Achaogen and Aradigm have gone belly up in recent months, pharmaceutical behemoths like Novartis and Allergan have abandoned the sector and many of the remaining American antibiotic companies are teetering toward insolvency. One of the biggest developers of antibiotics, Melinta Therapeutics, recently warned regulators it was running out of cash. Experts say the grim financial outlook...

Antibiotics are a medical marvel that has saved millions of lives around the world, but they must be properly and safely prescribed for humans and animals to ensure that they remain effective in treating diseases and illnesses. During Antibiotic Awareness Week and every week, I urge families and medical professionals to familiarize themselves with the consequences of antibiotic resistance and the steps we can all take to address this challenge. Antibiotics are remarkable drugs that are instrumental in fighting certain infections caused by bacteria and fungi. Far too often, however, they are prescribed for common viral illnesses that they are...

The journal Clinical Infectious Disease recently published findings showing that a cluster of antibiotic-resistant bacteria called Campylobacter coli has been found in a number of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Seattle, Wa., and Montreal, Canada. According to researchers, one of the bacterial strains has acquired a new gene that makes it able to resist antibiotics via the DNA sequences known as CRISPR, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Shortchanged Palindromic Repeats. (Not to be confused with the gene-editing technology also known as CRISPR.)

Antibiotics can leave the lung vulnerable to flu viruses, leading to significantly worse infections and symptoms, finds a new study. The research discovered that signals from gut bacteria help to maintain a first line of defence in the lining of the lung. When mice with healthy gut bacteria were infected with the flu, around 80% of them survived. However, only a third survived if they were given antibiotics before being infected. "We found that antibiotics can wipe out early flu resistance, adding further evidence that they should not be taken or prescribed lightly," explains Dr Andreas Wack. "Inappropriate use not...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, in mice, that treatment with an antibiotic reduces the size of lesions caused by endometriosis. The researchers are planning a large, multicenter clinical trial to test the drug metronidazole in women who have the painful condition. Studying mice, the researchers found that treating the animals with metronidazole reduced the size of endometriosis-related lesions in the gut. That was true whether treatment was started before the lesions began forming or after endometriosis already was well-established. The findings also suggest that bacteria in the gut microbiome may help drive, or...

The first known epidemic of extensively drug-resistant typhoid is spreading through Pakistan, infecting at least 850 people in 14 districts since 2016, according to the National Institute of Health Islamabad. The typhoid strain, resistant to five types of antibiotics, is expected to disseminate globally, replacing weaker strains where they are endemic. Experts have identified only one remaining oral antibiotic — azithromycin — to combat it; one more genetic mutation could make typhoid untreatable in some areas.

Destiny Pharma’s antibiotic for post-surgical infections will begin its clinical development after the FDA accepted its Investigational New Drug application. Destiny Pharma wants to combat the growing antibiotic resistance crisis by targeting post-surgical Staphylococcus aureus infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The FDA has accepted an investigational new drug application (IND) for Destiny’s MRSA candidate, XF-73, which will allow the company to complete Phase I and finalize the design of a Phase II trial. XF-73 is a dicationic porphyrin molecule, which is a member of a new class of antibiotics called XF drugs. Interestingly, XF-73 is a nasal gel, which...

US scientists have discovered a new family of antibiotics in soil samples. The natural compounds could be used to combat hard-to-treat infections, the team at Rockefeller University hopes. Tests show the compounds, called malacidins, annihilate several bacterial diseases that have become resistant to most existing antibiotics, including the superbug MRSA. Experts say the work, published in Nature Microbiology, offers fresh hope in the antibiotics arms race. Dr Sean Brady's team at New York's Rockefeller University has been busy unearthing them. They used a gene sequencing technique to analyse more than 1,000 soil samples taken from across the US. When they...

With the rise of superbugs, the impact of drug resistance is becoming more serious. One woman tells Talking Point how it left her blind and "like a child". Read more atIt started with a fever. To fight off the infection, Madam Siti Hajar had to rely on antibiotics, as her immune system was weak owing to her diabetes. But even when she returned to work, she did not feel any better. In fact, her vision began to be affected. So the next day, she went to Changi General Hospital’s accident and emergency department. “I only remember going to hospital and...

Antibiotic resistance has caused a fall in life expectancy for the first time, the Office for National Statistics has said. Life expectancy in future years has been revised down after the statistics authority said that "less optimistic views" about the future had to be taken into account.

Yes, say some international experts citing the rise of the super bug. But experts in UAE disagree and argue for better prescription protocols and patient responsibilityThe case of the six-year-old girl who developed antibiotic resistance is not an isolated one in the world of antibiotics. As these super drugs are routinely prescribed, controversies on their abuse and overuse are beginning to throw a big question-mark on whether antibiotics have outgrown their effectiveness. The question doing the rounds in many medical corridors is: Is the golden age of antibiotics over? “No, this is not true,” said Dr Sandeep Pargi, consultant pulmonologist...

Antibiotic resistance will end modern medicine and push us into a "post-antibiotic apocalypse", England's chief medical officer has warned. Dame Sally Davies has issued a call to action urging global leaders to address the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics. Professor Davies warns antibiotic resistance can jeopardise everyday medical procedures and make them "risky" - including caesarean sections, cancer treatments and hip replacements. She also says without drugs to treat infections, transplant medicine would be a "thing of the past". Professor Davies told Sky News: "The post-antibiotic apocalypse is that when you get an infection, we cannot guarantee it will...

Bacterial cells treated with a common antibiotic have been spotted changing shape to survive while aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The way bacteria act in near-zero gravity environments could pose a serious problem for treating astronauts with infections. ... An experiment on the common E coli bacteria subjected it to different concentrations of the antibiotic gentamicin sulfate, a drug which kills the bug on Earth. However, in comparison to a control group on Earth, the space bacteria showed a 13-fold increase in cell numbers and a 73% reduction in cell column size. "We knew bacteria behave differently in space...

THE Saudi Antibiotics Integrated Regulatory Program (SAIR) is an initiative launched by Mohammed Alaqil concerning the misuse and abuse of antibiotics and the issue of superbugs in Saudi Arabia. It is the first initiative and program where the idea is educational and supported by several international and national organizations. SAIR program has been working with several universities in the United States including Portland State University & Georgetown University. As a first plan, symposiums, seminars, and campaigns will be held and then it would be transmitted to the MENA region within the extended plan of SAIR for Middle East & North...

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

Antibiotics can still kill drug-resistant bacteria if they 'push' hard enough into bacterial cells, finds new UCL-led research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, opens up a promising new way of overcoming antibiotic resistance and could help scientists to design even more effective drugs. "Antibiotics work in different ways, but they all need to bind to bacterial cells in order to kill them," explains lead author Dr Joseph Ndieyira (UCL Medicine). "Antibiotics have 'keys' that fit 'locks' on bacterial cell surfaces, allowing them to latch on. When a bacterium becomes...

<p>The specific strain of CRE, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae, was isolated from one of her wounds in August.</p> <p>Tests were negative for the mcr-1 gene—a great concern to health experts because it makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, colistin.</p>