February 11, 2005
PERMANENCE:
Study: Overuse of Antibiotics Leads to Resistance (Jessica Berman, 10 February 2005, VOA News)
A study conducted in 26 European countries has found that resistance to antibiotics is more prevalent in countries where they are prescribed more often. Experts say resistance to antibiotics makes bacterial infections harder to treat.Antibiotic resistance is a serious public health problem, occurring when otherwise treatable bacterial infections no longer respond readily to the drugs. Researchers at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, concerned about the potential scope of resistance, found that it was higher in countries where the drugs were prescribed more freely.
The researchers studied antibiotic use in 26 European countries between 1997 and 2002.
They found that in countries where antibiotic use was highest, the drugs were less effective in treating a number of illnesses, including those caused by bacteria responsible for pneumonia, throat and urinary tract infections.
Yet they stubbornly remain just the same disease causing bacteria they've been for millenia on end.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 11, 2005 2:28 PM
Well, that's one way to cut back on prescriptions.
And how much money was spent on this study???
Posted by: Sandy P at February 11, 2005 4:41 PM"Yet they stubbornly remain just the same disease causing bacteria they've been for millenia on end."
The "same disease-causing bacteria" are the same because they're successful. And even those that are "the same," are rather different, with a number of new resistance genes that allow them to evade the antibiotic measures that so easily felled their ancestors.
And, of course, to make the above statement, you have to ignore the dozens upon dozens of new infectious agents we've been faced with in the past few decades alone.
Posted by: M. Bulger at February 11, 2005 5:15 PMOrrin,
"Yes, after all that they're just bacteria."
Meaning what? They're too small to see so they don't matter? They should have evolved into house-sized monsters by now?
What?
Bulger has a very good point, and it seems you don't know how to respond to it rationally.
Posted by: creeper at February 12, 2005 9:44 AMIt seems we have a pretty good example of evolution and natural selection right here, but all you get out of it is that they are still 'just bacteria'.
Did you expect them to change class while they were at it, or what?
Posted by: creeper at February 12, 2005 9:49 AMOrrin,
In taxonomy, the grouping of bacteria is pretty high up, on the order of a kingdom.
Your insisting that, despite evolving in response to changing living conditions, bacteria have remained within the same kingdom, of all things, is like asking human beings to transform into plants or bacteria in response to changing living conditions.
It is downright nonsensical. A shifting of the goalposts of such dimensions would indicate a profound desperation and lack of confidence in hanging on to one's case.
Once again, I have no idea what you are aiming to achieve with such bizarre lines of argument.
Posted by: creeper at February 12, 2005 11:39 AMCreeper:
OJ has absolutely no respect for the various taxa--in his world, species, family, kingdom, etc are equally interchangable, depending upon what otherwise indefensible point he is trying to make.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at February 12, 2005 11:44 AMOrrin,
"They haven't even changed species."
What species are they?
Posted by: creeper at February 12, 2005 11:46 AMi wonder if mrs oj has the same views on bacteria and their response to antibiotics.
Posted by: cjm at February 12, 2005 6:05 PMThey were changing even before antibiotics to become less virulent.
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at February 13, 2005 3:37 AM