14 ms·
Gonorrhea Is Becoming Untreatable, U.N. Health Officials Warn
- ChuckMcM 10y agoAnd then there are these stories : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/287745.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/287745.php talking about how there are all sorts of Antibiotics we don't even know about (yet). Or drugs that also kill bacteria (http://phys.org/news/2016-02-major-breakthrough-antibiotic-resistance.html http://phys.org/news/2016-02-major-breakthrough-antibiotic-r...) or even this (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/20/antibiotics-apocalypse-research-resistance-threat-breakthrough https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/20/antibi...) Basically as we get to understand exactly how cells work and how bacteria do what they do, and how they change. We won't need to scrounge around in the dirt to find something, hopefully, that will kill bacteria. We'll engineer what ever we need to kill what ever cells we want to kill.
- coldtea 10y agoSo, basically, nothing to worry, technology will save us in the end. And it might -- long term. Only, as things are now, between an antibiotic stopping working and finding a replacement, there could be tens of millions of deaths... Aside from wishful thinking there's nothing that guarantees that we'll find the next cure as soon as an old one becomes obsolete.
- Mz 10y agoAntibiotic resistance in biofilms can be reversed. It isn't sexy. It isn't dramatic enough for the news. People don't like focusing on it. But we already have research into how to do that. If you are genuinely worried, you can look up such info.
- memracom 10y agoHere is a place to start http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/01/29/the-race-to-reverse-antibiotic-resistance/#.V8YW15MrLOQ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/01/29/the-rac... And given that you can use sugar to help heal wounds http://www.drwhitaker.com/sugar-on-wounds-for-healing/ http://www.drwhitaker.com/sugar-on-wounds-for-healing/ what if you inject a sugar syrup into the bladder every time after you pee. Might work. Research is needed.
- Mz 10y agoUm, not a fan of your sugar syrup in the bladder idea. Stuff I have read indicates that antibiotic resisatant infections basically terraform the body, like an alligator making swamps in the American South. One of the things they typically do is making the body more acid. So, if you can reverse the acidity, the biofilm starts breaking up and the infection becomes treatable again.
- giardini 10y agoMz: "...like an alligator making swamps in the American South..." Alligators don't make swamps - they live in swamps. They do dig "alligator holes" but that is hardly swamp-making. Perhaps you're thinking of beavers, who _do_ very significantly modify waterways and lakes by building dams and nests?
- Mz 10y agoFinally, they alter the hydrology of wet areas in which they live, connecting existing water sources and separating others depending on their seasonal movement patterns. https://bioventures.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/keystone-species-american-alligator/ https://bioventures.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/keystone-specie... From what I have read, swamps tend to fill in over time and turn into solid land -- unless there are alligators.
- giardini 10y agoMz: "From what I have read, swamps tend to fill in over time and turn into solid land -- unless there are alligators." Swamps abound in lands with no alligators whatsoever. In places where there are alligators, they can serve as an indicator species or keystone species for ecological studies. Certainly they alter their environment and create niches for other species, but they aren't necessary for swamps and they don't create swamps. Removing all the alligators from a swamp would not get rid of the swamp. Putting a bunch of alligators into an area will not result in a swamp being created in that area.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoEverything is a probability right? I generally don't spend my days worrying about how I'm going to survive the next asteroid strike on the planet (guaranteed to to be an issue at some point). I also get in my car and drive on the highway between here and there even though I know there are people driving under the influence that can kill me if they hit my car at speed. There are people who are getting shot by other people trying to shoot still other people all over the place, but I don't strap on the kevlar vest when ever I go out. It's all probabilities. The risk is out there that at some point Gonorrhea can become the scourge of the human race. It is instructive to review how the staph bacteria has gone from nuisance to menace. But the exposure isn't there for Gonorreha to get ahead of us. Read that opinion piece in the Guardian. It is important to respect that things in the world can kill you, it is also important to not let your fear drive you to action that is counter productive.
- adrianN 10y agoHow is research into new treatments for bacterial infections and stricter regulations on how to use antibiotics counter-productive?
- pessimizer 10y agoIt's not all the same probabilities, it's all different probabilities. It's just as important not to let lack of fear lead you into action that is counterproductive.
- S_Daedalus 10y agoBeing unaware of a risk, isn't bravery, but there's a word for it.
- hueving 10y agoNot constantly living in fear of something is not the same thing as being unaware.
- S_Daedalus 10y agoWhile true, that isn't even tangentially related to what's happening in this case.
- taurath 10y agoThe other point is think about how much those new "designer" antibiotics would cost given the current system.
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoOur very existence is as improbable as an asteroid, some 70,000 years ago.
- hueving 10y agoSomething improbable happening doesn't mean something else improbable will. I'm not sure what your point is.
- coldtea 10y agoHis point is our existence is not some assured thing, it's a fragile semi-random event... And as I read it, he means that for our continued existence.
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoI think we are pretty "latched in". The semi-random part is more important than the fragile part.
- jorblumesea 10y agoAll of those are long term solutions or ideas, none will be to market in 5 years.
- lvs 10y agoNo, what you're encountering is the rift between new-media science bloggery and the real rate of scientific progress. In new-media science land, a university news office press release is akin to a solved problem. Antibotics? Done! Quantum computing? Solved! Room temperature superconductors? No problem! The press releases are abominations compared to the underlying research, and the new media companies are embellishing even further for clickbait. It's shameful because it's not reality, which means it's a close cousin of lies. Will progress be made? Yes, but until then global medical systems and agricultural sectors need to use sound antibiotics guidelines to avoid a looming catastrophe. No press release crap is saving patients who have MRSA right now!
- noam87 10y agoJust yesterday (msn). Headline: "Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space" Actual SETI website statement: "The chance that this is truly a signal from extraterrestrials is not terribly promising, and the discoverers themselves apparently doubt that they’ve found ET." The media reported literally the opposite. At this point you're better informed not following the news, if you don't have the time to dig for yourself. What hope does Average Joe have of having any clue wtf goes on in the world?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- xkcd-sucks 10y agoI mean, it is a signal of extra-terrestrial origin...
- skykooler 10y ago...or terrestrial interference, or something wrong with the telescope. Without even one other station reporting the signal, it's most likely something local.
- S_Daedalus 10y agoThat's a fantasy which we are about to run headlong into, as a species, in part thanks to people who won't face the grim reality and be responsible. This, "Tech will save us!" attitude among the a vast number of people who remain utterly ignorant of the reality of how that might happen, is literally going to kill us all if we're not careful.
- quickben 10y agoYou are basing your decisions on hope, which is as opposite of a rational approach as it gets.
- notadoc 10y agoWe have an antibiotic crisis and are approaching a post-antibiotic era unless governments around the world aggressively reduce usage and incentivize new production, regardless of what the pseudo-science or soft-science clickbait articles tell you that is the truth.
- brbrodude 10y agoYou should check out Nassim Taleb's "Black Swan"..
- memracom 10y agoRather than weakening the attacker (killing the bacteria) we could look for ways to strengthen the organism (boost the body's own defense mechanisms). The health industry as a whole, has been weakened by the discovery of antibiotics and designer molecules, and as a result now spends too many resources on looking for killer chemicals (antibiotics and other drugs). But there are other ways. One way is to follow the thread of research opened up by William B. Coley who developed Coley's Toxins, a cocktail of bacterial toxins that sparked the body's own defense mechanisms and in many cases, caused cancer tumors to turn to jelly within days and start being reabsorbed by the body. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1888599/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1888599/ has more about him. Or the way of genome therapy where researchers are studying the active genomes in both healthy and sick (or cancerous) cells to understand what knobs and buttons exist in the human organism that we might be able to adjust by means of various therapies, sometimes even benign ones. There is evidence that one of the many hundred subtypes of cancer will respond to everyday blood pressure medication. This is a relatively benign drug that, in the right conditions, will kill cancer cells. Of course, the right conditions include that the patient has certain specific genes. But genomic techniques ca discover these genomic markers and help us sort out the mechanisms by which cells resist attacks from hostile bacteria. The ultimate outcome for cancer would be that your doctor takes a biopsy of the cancer cells, their active genomes are analyzed and this information is used to build a molecular machine that manufacture a custom drug that will cure your cancer. Look at the molecular machinery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction which makes copies of DNA molecules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction And there is Reverse Transcription which converts RNA molecules to DNA molecules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcription_polymerase_chain_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcription_polymera... Not to mention the Ribosome which is the molecular machine in your cells which manufactures protein molecules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribosome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribosome
- HisGraceTheDuck 10y agoThese are all excellent points and we should definitely be pursuing all available avenues. I don't think this is and either/or proposition - we should look into anything that can help. Things like genome therapy are unfortunately a long way off so we need to look for antibiotics in the meantime.
- milesf 10y agoHere's a novel thought: Monogamy. Wait to have sex until you're married, then have only one sexual partner your entire life. That'll deal with the problem, and every other sexually transmitted disease out there. It's almost too simple to work, but I've heard that over time - thousands of years in fact - it is a strategy humans have used to build not just safe sex, but many other benefits as well http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-power-of-monogamy-10-surprising-claims-regarding-modern-love/article16099482/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-power-...
- Kenji 10y agoIf officials from the U.N. or from the WHO warn about something, I sleep particularly well at night, knowing that it's probably blown out of proportion by several orders or magnitude. Remember the bird flu? My employer at the time bought truckloads of sanitizers, plastic bins and related stuff. A complete waste of money. These people have lost every last shred of credibility for me.
- notadoc 10y agoYou understand the point of warnings is for action to be taken to hopefully prevent a further problem, right? Have street "Stop" signs lost their credibility with you too?
- Fomite 10y agoSeriously. This is like complaining that someone called the fire department, and your house didn't burn down, so it was clearly all for nothing.
- Fomite 10y agoThe WHO are also the people who eradicated smallpox.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- carsongross 10y agoAs surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm
- exolymph 10y agoScott Alexander's lengthy and masterful followup to / extension of Kipling's poem: http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
- VladimirGolovin 10y agoCan't comment on the followup / extension idea, but Scott Alexander's Meditations on Moloch is an amazing, possibly life-changing piece of writing. It's long, so you'll probably need at least an hour of time in a single uninterrupted chunk - but in the end, it's absolutely worth it.
- throwanem 10y agoI don't know about changing my life, but it certainly has changed my opinion of Scott Alexander, and vastly in his favor.
- zackmorris 10y agoKeep in mind that media outlets are unlikely to point out the fact that antibiotic resistance is mainly caused by antibiotic overuse on farms for livestock (due to the conflict of interest when so many ad dollars come from food). Yes, humans failing to finish their run for the time prescribed for them, and use of antibiotics for viral infections have been a problem too. But those are completely dwarfed by farm use. Funding for new antibiotic research should come from taxes on big agribusiness and there should be more regulation on antibiotic use for livestock.
- S_Daedalus 10y agoThis is true for so many issues, including water usage, greenhouse gasses, and broader forms of pollution.
- necessity 10y agoAny citation on that?
- aaronbrethorst 10y agoA Google search for the terms antibiotic resistance livestock turns up: http://www.cdc.gov/narms/animals.html http://www.cdc.gov/narms/animals.html, http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/industrial-agriculture/prescription-for-trouble.html http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-..., and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17600481 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17600481 on the first page. Edit: In the off-chance this is about the media conspiracy theory thing... http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/feeding-antibiotics-farm-animals-may-worsen-climate-change-n580406 http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/feeding-antibiotic... http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46016296/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/antibiotics-breed-drug-resistant-bacteria-pigs/#.V8ZAK6OZPdQ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46016296/ns/technology_and_science... http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/11/16/kids-drug-resistant-bacteria-blamed-on-farm-antibiotic-use.html http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/11/16/kids-drug-resistant... http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/07/11/infection-experts-warn-more-us-superbug-cases-in-coming-months.html http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/07/11/infection-experts-w...
- hackaflocka 10y agoDoes oral sex transmit Gonorrhea? Are there any sex acts that are immune to it? Is there anything safe (sex-wise) that one can do to prevent it?
- stevula 10y agoYes, oral-genital transmission (and vice versa) is common. It can even infect the mucous membranes of the eye in some cases.
- hackaflocka 10y agoCan it be transmitted from heavy kissing?
- mcjon77 10y agoYes, gonorrhea (as well as chlamydia and syphilis) can be transmitted via oral sex. In fact, I know of someone who contracted oral gonorrhea (at first she thought it was a bad sore throat) and passed it to a guy who contracted genital gonorrhea.
- hackaflocka 10y agoCan it be transmitted from heavy kissing?
- alanh 10y agoAnd there are still those who deny evolution…
- wdelements 10y agoHN is the only special interest community where topics around sex frequently pop up. Just wondering why? Is it that the HN reader have much less intercourse than the average? If yes then this story shouldn't get any interest of HN users. Why bother if you don't get laid anyway? Or is a large part of the HN community homosexual? Then yes, they have way more sex than the average. Then, they are prone to the new mutated super-power gonorrhea and should upvote this article with all their accounts. This were my initial thoughts when reading this article. Why on HN, why do all the Rust, Go and Python lovers care so much? I expect to get heavily downvoted or that this post won't be approved. This is sad and quite typical for HN: Never touch sensible topics, yes let's talk about sex, meaning of life and let's do this the HN way, high karma folks with off-topic conspiracy theories at the top and don't dare to criticize or to stereotype ourselves.
- lostlogin 10y agoSomeone I know described visiting a small rural pharmacy in Nepal and talking to the pharmacist. Many locals can't afford courses of antibiotics for sick family members so they buy just a dose or two. This was allowed on even fairly hardcore, last line antibiotics which required special government ministry approval back home. If different countries have such different practices, things are not going to go well.
- siscia 10y agoMaybe I am saying something completely out of the world. But when bacteria become too dangerous why we don't simply vaccinate against them?
- cfontes 10y agoVaccines are expensive to research and require a very long period of trials before being release to the public, while this happens people will die by the millions without antibiotics. Also because bacteria can mutate making your vaccine useless, so you need to research again.
- siscia 10y agoSure but once enough people are vaccinated the bacteria will have less surface to develop further mutations. We should aim to vaccinate as many people as possible and use antibiotics only in the rare case of infection, shouldn't we?
- vibrio 10y agosure. did you get your flu vaccine last year? will you get another next year, and the year after? You should, but there is a limit to the number of the vaccines that are feasible either scientifically, clinically, or economically.
- DavidWilkinson 10y agoSuper-gonorrhoea due to antibiotic over-use and treatment non-adherence. Drug-resistant HIV due to natural mutation and an increase in infection vectors (courtesy PrEP). Killer venereal diseases: we missed you, but not that much.