Antibiotic resistance is increasing to such a level that there are fears that within 20 years antibiotics will cease to function, an eventuality that could take us back to the days before penicillin. Compounds that block the bacteria’s pathogenicity instead of killing them outright may be a solution to this confounding problem.
The lack of effective antibiotics has become more and more acute as the number of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics has increased. One of the companies that working on new ways to fight against the pathogenic bacteria is Creative Antibiotics based in Ume? in Sweden.
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Posted: March 16th, 2010
Japanese scientists have found that it is possible to eradicate Helicobacter pylori infections by using antibiotics. H. pylori can cause stomach ulcers and, in extreme cases, gastric cancer. Seiji Shiota and Yoshio Yamaoka from Oita University , Japan and Baylor College of Medicine , Texas, respectively, gave H. pylori antibiotics to patients with early gastric cancer after surgical resection and were followed up for three years.
It was found that patients who received antibiotic treatment had a significantly lower risk of developing gastric cancer, confirming the importance of careful management of H. pylori.
However, certain populations (e.g. India and Thailand) have a high prevalence of H. pylori infection but a low incidence of gastric cancer.
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Posted: March 15th, 2010
There definitely needs to be an overhaul of health care as we know it. For one thing, doctors have too much control over our lives. If we get an infected cut, we have to go to the doctor and get a prescription for antibiotics. If we get a sinus infection, we have to go the doctor and get a prescription for antibiotics. If we get a sore throat or ear infection, we have to go to the doctor and get a prescription.
Why don’t we eliminate this need to go to the doctor to get a prescription? By that, I mean why don’t we eliminate the middle man, the doctor? Antibiotics are not dangerous drugs. They could nip infections in the bud instead of allowing the infection to linger on and on because either you don’t have health insurance or no money for a copay if you do have insurance.
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Posted: March 12th, 2010
Kids get sick. They get sick a lot. In fact, during the first three years of life, the average child gets six to eight viral upper respiratory track infections or colds per year. This is nature’s way of building up the immune system. As a pediatrician, I see dozens of children every day due to illness. One myth that I commonly come across is that antibiotics cure all illnesses. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 9th, 2010
Doctors warn patients not to jump so quickly to ask for an antibiotic. With a bacterial infection, a portion of the bacteria might be resistant to the antibiotic. Then, that portion can multiply and mutate, and perhaps be tough to kill off.
Doctors say that’s in part because any time we use an antibiotic, it puts pressure on a bacteria to develop resistance. And, with the continued use of antibiotics in society, whether it’s in medicine form, or in the foods that we eat such as livestock where antibiotics are often used in the animals, there is more and more pressure to develop that resistance. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 6th, 2010