Nature vs man

[rovr4on]

Scientists have blamed Europe's worst recorded food-poisoning outbreak on a "super-toxic" strain of E. coli bacteria that may be brand new.

But while suspicion has fallen on raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the germ, researchers have been unable to pinpoint the food responsible for the frightening illness, which has killed at least 18 people, sickened more than 1600 and spread to least 10 European countries.

An alarmingly large number of victims — about 500 — have developed kidney complications that can be deadly.

Chinese and German scientists analysed the DNA of the E. coli bacteria and determined that the outbreak was caused by "an entirely new, super-toxic" strain that contains several antibiotic-resistant genes, according to a statement from the Shenzhen, China-based laboratory BGI. It said the strain appeared to be a combination of two types of E. coli.

Spooky stuff, remember reading an article about scientists believing that antibiotics will be ineffective against bacterias within 50 years time. Black plague V.2 about to grip the world during our lifetime :shock:

I had an infection I got from Vanuatu that I treated with every disinfectant under the sun over a period of 3 weeks, and ended up succumbing and going to the Dr for antibiotics. Makes me wonder how bad it could have got without these!

[hhhh1]

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[Chemo]

only making it worse if you dont kill it off i think

[hhhh1]

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[Chemo]

ahhhh i is now educated.

Sounds like a shit deal, would not want to be catching that.

Saw this on the news, but they didnt make a big fuss about it.

[tinytraps]

nah its the use of antibiotics that causes these super-pathogens. the antibiotics kill off the 'weaker' strains leaving only the more resistant ones. over time this causes the disease to become increasingly resistant to antibiotics

This. Its why I dont take any medication at all

[Dubble_D]

It is going to become a big problem in the future. Already is becoming a problem.

Maybe finally natural selection will catch up to us....

[AlBundy]

Is it really though? The emergence of antibiotic resistent bacteria means that at least some bacteria always had AB resistent genes so by taking ABs we are selecting against the ones lacking those genes and selecting for the ones that do. Which means that AB resistent super strains where always going to be inevitable as soon as we started to use ABs no matter how responsibly ABs where prescribed so essentially who gives a f*ck? Not to mention new drugs are always been synthesized and I don't know if there are that many bacteria resistent to everything.

All the excessive use has done is speed up the process.

You might as well just take antibiotics when sick there is nothing other than misguided pride or misinformation to stop anyone from taking them.

[Dubble_D]

Is it really though? The emergence of antibiotic resistent bacteria means that at least some bacteria always had AB resistent genes so by taking ABs we are selecting against the ones lacking those genes and selecting for the ones that do. Which means that AB resistent super strains where always going to be inevitable as soon as we started to use ABs no matter how responsibly ABs where prescribed so essentially who gives a f*ck? Not to mention new drugs are always been synthesized and I don't know if there are that many bacteria resistent to everything.

All the excessive use has done is speed up the process.

You might as well just take antibiotics when sick there is nothing other than misguided pride or misinformation to stop anyone from taking them.

Agreed :nod:

However, I avoid any medication non the less.

I believe if your diet is on track and you are of good health, the necessity for drugs are minimized greatly.

Im am Ecologist not a Pharmacists so :shrug:

[rovr4on]

I had an infection I got from Vanuatu that I treated with every disinfectant under the sun over a period of 3 weeks, and ended up succumbing and going to the Dr for antibiotics. Makes me wonder how bad it could have got without these!

aren't you contributing to the problem by taking antibiotics though?

I was contributing to problem in taking them, but I did try fight it for 3 weeks, and it just got bigger, spread to a cut in my finger from treating it so often...lol started to take me over...it was a relativly serious strain from what Dr said as he said he would only call if it was serious, in which he did call, but my body doesnt need much antibiotics to kill the strain as I always try to avoid taking em for the above reasons...

[hhhh1]

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[Dontrunwithknives]

The main problem with antibiotics is that people get told to take them until they finish the whole course and they don't listen. There is a reason you get told this! If you just take the antibiotics, start to feel better and you stop taking it then any organisms that have managed to survive so far will become resistant to antibiotics (kind of like how we are immunized).

[AlBundy]

When you are genuinely sick and aren't on the mend so to speak is what I'm talking about. I'm not saying go out and take them when you have a cold but things like lingering coughs, infected cuts, secondary infections etc usually require antibiotic assistence if they are taking to long to go away. If you're immune system cranks and fights of everything without assistance then that's fantastic you should avoid antibiotics.

We've already fucked with natural selection severely so our species will get weaker regardless of what we do at this point. A weakening immune system is just another part of that, I mean washing our hands disinfecting everything avoiding dirty things, medicine used to allow people to live who would have died naturally, the direction we are heading in is set untill a catastrophy happens or we use gene therapy in the future to reinforce our genome.

[AlBundy]

Yea people not finishing courses of antibiotics is a major contributor to it. They take medicine for a few days feel a bit better and decide to stop before they have fully eradicated the infection then it flares up again.