3 ms·

Can a biologist please chime in here... Being that TB is bacterial and covid viral, there is no risk of this petri dish of a person mutating a combination patho

by elif 4y ago

Can a biologist please chime in here... Being that TB is bacterial and covid viral, there is no risk of this petri dish of a person mutating a combination pathogen, right? It seems odd and concerning to have level 3 containment labs with all their rules, but defacto allowing individuals to essentially roll the dice in public. I have to admit this is one of the first times my philosophy has tended toward authoritarianism...

kylehotchkiss 4y ago
(Not a biologist) one of the biggest fears with this particular bacteria is that if you start the treatment and then stop it before the duration completes, you will almost certainly end up with drug resistant bacteria. The treatment drug resistant takes much longer and has heavy side effects. And if you screw that treatment up, you can harbor totally drug resistant bacteria and there’s no treatment available anywhere. This bacteria is especially hard to kill - your body can’t, which is why you need treatment. And the medicine doesn’t kill especially well, it interferes with reproduction primarily and the cells end up dying on their own slow scale.
acdha 4y ago
The two won’t combine but several of the COVID variants are believed to have evolved in immune-compromised people where the virus had many cycles to improve thanks to the host immune system being unable to destroy it. Someone with a massive TB infection seems like they might provide a similar breeding ground, and the reverse could be true if they didn’t manage a successful treatment regimen for TB.
classichasclass 4y ago
No, they can't combine like that. But irregularly treated TB can become resistant to the most useful antibiotics which in turn makes the case extremely difficult to treat (sometimes years). There are individuals who have TB untreatable by currently known means, even failing surgical approaches. They are rare but they exist. The COVID co-infection may make her more subject to more significant pulmonary complications but what this means in terms of variants isn't clear. Source: public health TB physician

by elif 4y ago

kylehotchkiss 4y ago

(Not a biologist) one of the biggest fears with this particular bacteria is that if you start the treatment and then stop it before the duration completes, you will almost certainly end up with drug resistant bacteria. The treatment drug resistant takes much longer and has heavy side effects. And if you screw that treatment up, you can harbor totally drug resistant bacteria and there’s no treatment available anywhere. This bacteria is especially hard to kill - your body can’t, which is why you need treatment. And the medicine doesn’t kill especially well, it interferes with reproduction primarily and the cells end up dying on their own slow scale.

acdha 4y ago

The two won’t combine but several of the COVID variants are believed to have evolved in immune-compromised people where the virus had many cycles to improve thanks to the host immune system being unable to destroy it. Someone with a massive TB infection seems like they might provide a similar breeding ground, and the reverse could be true if they didn’t manage a successful treatment regimen for TB.

classichasclass 4y ago

No, they can't combine like that. But irregularly treated TB can become resistant to the most useful antibiotics which in turn makes the case extremely difficult to treat (sometimes years). There are individuals who have TB untreatable by currently known means, even failing surgical approaches. They are rare but they exist. The COVID co-infection may make her more subject to more significant pulmonary complications but what this means in terms of variants isn't clear. Source: public health TB physician