Worrisome news in the fight against pathogens:
An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: A new gene that can turn many types of bacteria into superbugs resistant to nearly all antibiotics has sickened people in three states and is popping up all over the world, health officials reported Monday.
The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is widespread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures.
[…]
Scientists have long feared this — a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance.
"It's a great concern," because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. "It's just a matter of time" until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person, he said.
[…]
What can people do?
Don't add to the drug resistance problem, experts say. Don't pressure your doctors for antibiotics if they say they aren't needed, use the ones you are given properly, and try to avoid infections by washing your hands.
The gene can spread hand-to-mouth, which makes good hygiene very important.
It's also why health officials are so concerned about where the threat is coming from, said Dr. Patrice Nordmann, a microbiology professor at South-Paris Medical School. India is an overpopulated country that overuses antibiotics and has widespread diarrheal disease and many people without clean water.
"The ingredients are there" for widespread transmission, he said. "It's going to spread by plane all over the world."
Very scary indeed. If a superbug attacks you, you have no defenses. And if the medicines we know fail to kill it? Than what?
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