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World


resistant newborn infections in India include the Klebsiella and Acineto- bacter bacteria, which are found in untreated human waste. Nearly half of Indians defecate outdoors because they lack indoor facilities. Newborns are especially vulnera-


ble because their immune systems are not developed, but everyone is at risk. “India’s dreadful sanitation, uncontrolled use of antibiotics, and overcrowding coupled with a lack of monitoring the problem has created a tsunami of antibiotic resistance that is reaching just about every country


In Britain, a study by the Review


“This is a major crisis . . . our antibiotics are becoming less and less powerful.” — David Sanders, Purdue University


in the world,” Dr. Timothy R. Walsh, a professor of microbiology at Cardiff University in Wales, told the Times. In fact, researchers have already


found “superbugs” carrying a genetic code first identified in India in other countries, including Japan, France, and the United States. The Centers for Disease Control


and Prevention has estimated that 23,000 Americans die from drug-resis- tant bacterial infections each year, but experts say those deaths are often incorrectly attributed to other causes. Sanders, who “rejects categorically”


the notion that drug-resistant bacteria is a Third World problem, estimates the actual number of U.S. deaths is between 75,000 and 100,000 annually. Medical experts have warned for


decades that overusing antibiotics could cause the bacteria to evolve to become resistant to antibiotics. Health authorities report there are


now over 17 types of drug-resistant bacteria.


40 NEWSMAX | MARCH 2015


on Antimicrobial Resistance esti- mated that by 2050 superbugs would claim more lives globally than cancer. That led British Prime Minister David Cameron to warn of an “unthinkable scenario” where antibiotics no longer work “and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine.” Collectively, Indians take more antibiotics, which are sold over the counter, than any other nationality. But strains of resistant bacteria homegrown in the United States have spread to other nations as well, and health officials see MRSA and other bugs as an increas- ingly global threat. During the


Ebola crisis, Sand- ers was a voice of calm. He repeat- edly assured the


media that Ebola posed a minuscule threat to U.S. citizens. But on the topic of superbugs Sand-


ers warns that people have every rea- son to be very concerned, adding there have been sporadic accounts of U.S. children born with antibiotic-resistant infections. “There are already cases like this in


the United States,” he says, “and I am afraid they are going to be increasing over time because our antibiotics are becoming less and less powerful.” Hospitals have also become fertile


grounds for the spread of bacteria. Maternity wards often have two or three women in each bed, according to the Times, and a UNICEF survey of nearly 100 health facilities found that 70 percent had possibly contaminated water and the majority of toilets were unsanitary. “If resistant infections keep grow-


ing,” Dr. Paul said, “that would be a disaster for not only India but the entire world.”


Science Takes On the Tough Bugs


I


n the never-ending biological arms race between bacteria and medicine, there’s a new antibiotic that researchers believe could give humanity a decisive edge in the battle against deadly resistant “superbugs.” Called teixobactin, the drug comes


from friendly bacteria that scientists literally dug out of soil in a grassy field in Maine. “It’s a tremendous source of new antibiotic compounds,” says Northeastern University researcher Kim Lewis. Researchers from Northeastern


teamed up with a small firm called NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals to identify some 10,000 strains of soil bacteria. Scientists tested extracts from friendly soil bacteria against pathogens causing dangerous respiratory tract infections in mice. They were stunned when the


teixobactin wiped out the dangerous bacteria. Even more importantly, scientists attempted, but were unable, to create a resistant bacteria that would be immune to teixobactin’s effects. This suggests teixobactin’s protective effects could last for decades, they say. The drug’s effectiveness stems


from how it works. Most antibiotics attack a bacterium’s proteins, but scientists say the teixobactin destroys lipid or fat molecules. That means developing new proteins won’t help deadly resistant bacteria like MRSA survive the anti-bacterial attack. The new drug may open up


entirely new ways of discovering antibiotics. In announcing their discovery in the journal Nature, the Northeastern scientists wrote: “It is likely that additional natural compounds with similarly low susceptibility to resistance are present in nature and are waiting to be discovered.” — David Patten


COURTESY OF DAVID SANDERS


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