Gut feeling: germ warfare opens a new front
March 17, 2013
Melissa Sweet

Overuse of antibiotics is not only creating resistant strains of bacteria but also changing the complex ecology of the human body.

As research projects go, it probably didn’t sound too earth-shattering for the volunteers. Apart from demonstrating their good health, they simply had to give blood, stool and saliva samples and have swabs taken from various locations on their bodies.

We will probably never know their names, but the contribution of these 242 American men and women is having a profound impact on our understanding of health and illness, and even raising questions about what it means to be human. This research into the ‘‘microbiome’‘ – the viruses, bacteria and other microbes living with us – also puts a whole new slant on long-standing public health problems, such as the overuse of antibiotics.

In June last year, after five years of work by about 200 scientists from 80 universities, the US-based Human Microbiome Project released its initial analyses of those volunteers’ donations. The results paint an extraordinary, though preliminary, portrait of the richness of our microbial life. The researchers found more than 10,000 species of microbes living in and on their subjects, with each person carrying about 8 million different bacterial genes (compared with 22,000 or so human genes).

‘‘The more closely we look, the more bacterial diversity we find,’‘ said one of the scientists, Susan Huse, from the Marine Biological Laboratory, when the microbiome ‘‘map’‘ was released. ‘‘We can’t even name all these kinds of bacteria we are discovering in human and environmental habitats. It’s like trying to name all the stars.’‘

Just as we unconsciously help the microbes in their quest for survival, so do many of them return the favour, whether by producing beneficial compounds, helping us to digest our foods, or boosting our immune system. By colonising our skin, gut and other surfaces, they help reduce the opportunities for more dangerous bugs to take hold. The research found that most healthy people carry pathogens, or microbes capable of causing disease, prompting speculation that there may be hitherto unrecognised benefits from such relationships.

Read more:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/gut-feeling-germ-warfare-opens-a-new-front-20130316-2g805.html#ixzz2NmkRCFKb

Looks like microbes are now the Dark Matter of the human body.

A bit more here:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=your-microbiome-community-we-the-people

And an interactive thingy:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microbiome-graphic-explore-human-microbiome

(I remembered reading about it in SciAm)

Under-use of antibiotics is far more deadly than overuse.

> Overuse of antibiotics is not only creating resistant strains of bacteria

That’s bull. The resistant strains of bacteria were around before antibiotics were used and can be found in places where antibiotics have never been overused. The antibiotics just weed out all the others, no big deal.

> also changing the complex ecology of the human body.

Everything changes the ecology of the human body, what we eat and drink, how often we shower, etc.

no big deal.

really? then what is all the fuss about?

>That’s bull. The resistant strains of bacteria were around before antibiotics were used and can be found in places where antibiotics have never been overused. The antibiotics just weed out all the others, no big deal.

Thats not the story we are being told. I am sure they said that the bugs were mutating.

morrie said:

>That’s bull. The resistant strains of bacteria were around before antibiotics were used and can be found in places where antibiotics have never been overused. The antibiotics just weed out all the others, no big deal.

Thats not the story we are being told. I am sure they said that the bugs were mutating.

in the case of TB for example; it is not the over prescribing of antibiotics, it is the not taking of the full course prescribed that causes the mutations.

mollwollfumble said:

Under-use of antibiotics is far more deadly than overuse.

> Overuse of antibiotics is not only creating resistant strains of bacteria

That’s bull. The resistant strains of bacteria were around before antibiotics were used and can be found in places where antibiotics have never been overused. The antibiotics just weed out all the others, no big deal.

> also changing the complex ecology of the human body.

Everything changes the ecology of the human body, what we eat and drink, how often we shower, etc.

Yes we had some types of resistant strains before antibiotics, but the frequency of even common forms of bacteria becoming resistant probably wasn’t this high and its becoming more common. We’re selecting for resistance.

roughbarked said:

morrie said:

>That’s bull. The resistant strains of bacteria were around before antibiotics were used and can be found in places where antibiotics have never been overused. The antibiotics just weed out all the others, no big deal.

Thats not the story we are being told. I am sure they said that the bugs were mutating.

in the case of TB for example; it is not the over prescribing of antibiotics, it is the not taking of the full course prescribed that causes the mutations.

Perhaps being pedantic here, but nothing we do causes the mutations. It is the preferential survival of the mutations that is a result of antibiotic use.

If a mutation can survive the full course, then it will survive even if everybody takes the full course. In fact since it will have less competition it will survive even better if everybody takes the full course.

>>We’re selecting for resistance.<<

Evolution in action.

buffy said:

>>We’re selecting for resistance.<<

Evolution in action.

Bastard plasmids.

It’s just that they are soooo much faster at reproduction than us. We’ll never catch them!

:)

buffy said:

It’s just that they are soooo much faster at reproduction than us. We’ll never catch them!

:)

Just as well, having people with the ability to divide into almost identical progeny rapidly would be terrifying.

poikilotherm said:

Just as well, having people with the ability to divide into almost identical progeny rapidly would be terrifying.

I really don’t know what to say about that DA……….

Superbug found in Melbourne hospital

AM By Rachel Carbonell
Updated 58 minutes ago

There are fresh concerns about antibiotic-resistant superbugs emerging in Australia after it was revealed a Melbourne hospital became contaminated with one.

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, has been described by members of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases (ASID) as “the new plague”.

Dandenong Hospital, in Melbourne’s south-east, has reported 10 cases of CRE in as many years, according to the Medical Journal of Australia.

No-one has died and the hospital now says it has the contamination under control.

The hospital’s head of infectious diseases, Dr Rhonda Stuart, says the outbreak was traced to sinks in the intensive care unit and high-pressure steam cleaning is being used to control the organism.

“I think it’s a stressful time for health professional around Australia,” she said.

ASID head David Looke says the contamination is an increasing problem.

“I’m not surprised because these incidences occur in many hospitals around the country, on and off,” he said.

“And I think that what’s new is this particular bug is so resistant to antibiotics that it was worth reporting.

.
(Sidebox to article)

What is CRE?

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae is a family of germs with high levels of resistance to antibiotics. E. coli is an example of Enterobacteriaceae, a normal part of human gut bacteria which can become carbapenem-resistant.

Types of CRE are KPC (Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase) and NDM (New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase). KPC and NDM are enzymes that break down carbapenems and make them ineffective.

Infections mostly occur among patients being treated for other conditions. Patients who require ventilators or catheters and patients on long courses of certain antibiotics are most at risk.

Death occurs in up to 50 per cent of infected patients.

Source: Wikipedia/Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-18/antibiotic-resistant-superbug-found-in-melbourne-hospital/4579314