6 ms·

More people died of superbacteria in 2019 than HIV or malaria, study suggests

93 points by PabloRobles 5y ago

dang 5y ago
The study is here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
PabloRobles 5y ago
By "superbacteria" I mean "drug-resistant bacteria". I linked the original study, but I saw it Spanish national media, and then here: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/health/bacterial-antimicrobial-resistance/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/health/bacterial-antimicr...
- MaxBarraclough 5y ago
  The HN guidelines ask submissions not to edit the title except for certain narrow exceptions. Also, here's a BBC article on the topic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60058120 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60058120
  - dang 5y ago
    The title was from the cnn.com article. I've changed to that now from https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... - usually the best choice for studies like this is to link to the best third-party article and link to the paper in the thread.
    - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
      Got it, thanks.
legulere 5y ago
My hope is that phage therapy can solve the issue of drug-resistant bacteria. Also we really need to get our things together and work against misuse of antibiotics.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  > Also we really need to get our things together and work against misuse of antibiotics. Too late for that, we already have the superbugs. Not to say that reducing antibiotic usage in farms is not worth the effort (because it is), but we need to ramp up investment in basic R&D for antibiotics again - there is almost none of that any more since it is extremely cost-intensive and the medications are low-revenue [1]. ETA: Additionally, we could curb human antibiotic usage by making rapid tests for common viral infections more available. Routinely checking for strep throat and the various flu viruses both at-home and in clinical situations could save people a lot of completely unnecessary antibiotics courses - as well as teaching basic life education like "if it's not a bacterial infection behind your sore throat, an antibiotics course won't help at all, it will go away on itself after three to four days". Lateral flow rapid tests are incredibly cheap to manufacture and (as the last two years have shown) capable of being self-administered - making them account for multiple sorts of antibodies is already done for COVID tests. [1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02884-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02884-3
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- zerr 5y ago
  Why a phage therapy is not widespread?
  - artyomxyz 5y ago
    It's pretty easy to buy phages in Russia. It is sold in almost any pharmacy, doctors sometimes recommend it, you can check if bacteria sample is sensitive to phage in almost any medical lab. I even had an experience of treating infection with phages myself, as antibiotics had interactions with my other drugs. It went pretty well. But in my case, course of treatment with phages is around 100$, while course of treatment with antibiotics is 5-10$.
ErikVandeWater 5y ago
All the health agencies in the world know this is a problem, but are there any actual changes being made to prevent the worst-case scenario? I worry this is the same situation as Covid, where health agencies knew for years hospital capacity was stretched thin, and lo-and-behold, thousands of people die unnecessarily when a new virus arrives because hospital capacity was overwhelmed.
- hogrider 5y ago
  It's like insurance, they think they won't need it and they don't have any incentive to do the right thing (spend more, much more, for a catastrophic but low chance scenario).
- patall 5y ago
  Afaik, one problem is that the health agencies can only do so much. Most antibiotics and antibiotics misuse happens in agriculture where a totally different agency is responsible. Yes, they should foster more research into new drugs, but the main challenge remains prophylactic animal treatment.
  - ErikVandeWater 5y ago
    It seems like a situation where hospitals could be designed in such a way to reduce the likelihood of creating 'superbacteria.' Certainly some must be better than others? They could also address society generally having poor health - If the CDC pounded the table about unhealthy foods/the obesity epidemic I'm sure it could move the needle in some way. Addressing the obesity epidemic would be killing 100+ birds with one stone.
    - mrguyorama 5y ago
      Well now pretty much half of the country refuses anything the CDC says.
ppod 5y ago
> Our approach can be divided into five broad components: number of deaths where infection played a role, proportion of infectious deaths attributable to a given infectious syndrome, proportion of infectious syndrome deaths attributable to a given pathogen, the percentage of a given pathogen resistant to an antibiotic of interest, and the excess risk of death or duration of an infection associated with this resistance The headline that you wrote phrases this as "died of superbacteria", does this relate to the number where an infection played a role or the number attributable to a given pathogen?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
mrtri 5y ago
pshirshov 5y ago
Well. There are two old St.Aureus vaccines which, in combination, allowed me to eradicate MRSA which I got during a hospital stay. One these vaccines was created long time ago in USSR for veterinary workers, another one - to treat skin infections in babies. Both are still produced and available though most of the doctors are not aware of them. Both, of course, were never tested in proper trials. Not like anyone cares. https://www.rlsnet.ru/tn_index_id_5850.htm https://www.rlsnet.ru/tn_index_id_5850.htm https://www.vidal.ru/drugs/therapeutic_staphylococcal_vaccine_staphylococcal_antifagin___42878 https://www.vidal.ru/drugs/therapeutic_staphylococcal_vaccin...
- b112 5y ago
  Interesting. I wonder on the issues, efficacy, etc. TB vaccine is troublesome and not that effective, to the point that some debate it should not be used, tetanus seems wildly successful. (These are the only other bacteria vaccines I know of)
  - greatpatton 5y ago
    They are many bacterial vaccine out there against pneumococcal, meningococcal, typhoid fever, cholera, haemophilus influenzae type B etc.
tim333 5y ago
There's some hope maybe with >Microorganisms found in dirt have yielded antibiotics that can kill pathogens resistant to multiple drugs. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01931-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01931-4 and similar stuff? We could do with some government action to develop some and ban using them in farming.

93 points by PabloRobles 5y ago

dang 5y ago

The study is here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

PabloRobles 5y ago

By "superbacteria" I mean "drug-resistant bacteria". I linked the original study, but I saw it Spanish national media, and then here: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/health/bacterial-antimicrobial-resistance/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/health/bacterial-antimicr...

MaxBarraclough 5y ago
The HN guidelines ask submissions not to edit the title except for certain narrow exceptions. Also, here's a BBC article on the topic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60058120 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60058120
- dang 5y ago
  The title was from the cnn.com article. I've changed to that now from https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... - usually the best choice for studies like this is to link to the best third-party article and link to the paper in the thread.
  - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
    Got it, thanks.

legulere 5y ago

My hope is that phage therapy can solve the issue of drug-resistant bacteria. Also we really need to get our things together and work against misuse of antibiotics.

mschuster91 5y ago
> Also we really need to get our things together and work against misuse of antibiotics. Too late for that, we already have the superbugs. Not to say that reducing antibiotic usage in farms is not worth the effort (because it is), but we need to ramp up investment in basic R&D for antibiotics again - there is almost none of that any more since it is extremely cost-intensive and the medications are low-revenue [1]. ETA: Additionally, we could curb human antibiotic usage by making rapid tests for common viral infections more available. Routinely checking for strep throat and the various flu viruses both at-home and in clinical situations could save people a lot of completely unnecessary antibiotics courses - as well as teaching basic life education like "if it's not a bacterial infection behind your sore throat, an antibiotics course won't help at all, it will go away on itself after three to four days". Lateral flow rapid tests are incredibly cheap to manufacture and (as the last two years have shown) capable of being self-administered - making them account for multiple sorts of antibodies is already done for COVID tests. [1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02884-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02884-3
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
zerr 5y ago
Why a phage therapy is not widespread?
- artyomxyz 5y ago
  It's pretty easy to buy phages in Russia. It is sold in almost any pharmacy, doctors sometimes recommend it, you can check if bacteria sample is sensitive to phage in almost any medical lab. I even had an experience of treating infection with phages myself, as antibiotics had interactions with my other drugs. It went pretty well. But in my case, course of treatment with phages is around 100$, while course of treatment with antibiotics is 5-10$.

ErikVandeWater 5y ago

All the health agencies in the world know this is a problem, but are there any actual changes being made to prevent the worst-case scenario? I worry this is the same situation as Covid, where health agencies knew for years hospital capacity was stretched thin, and lo-and-behold, thousands of people die unnecessarily when a new virus arrives because hospital capacity was overwhelmed.

hogrider 5y ago
It's like insurance, they think they won't need it and they don't have any incentive to do the right thing (spend more, much more, for a catastrophic but low chance scenario).
patall 5y ago
Afaik, one problem is that the health agencies can only do so much. Most antibiotics and antibiotics misuse happens in agriculture where a totally different agency is responsible. Yes, they should foster more research into new drugs, but the main challenge remains prophylactic animal treatment.
- ErikVandeWater 5y ago
  It seems like a situation where hospitals could be designed in such a way to reduce the likelihood of creating 'superbacteria.' Certainly some must be better than others? They could also address society generally having poor health - If the CDC pounded the table about unhealthy foods/the obesity epidemic I'm sure it could move the needle in some way. Addressing the obesity epidemic would be killing 100+ birds with one stone.
  - mrguyorama 5y ago
    Well now pretty much half of the country refuses anything the CDC says.

ppod 5y ago

> Our approach can be divided into five broad components: number of deaths where infection played a role, proportion of infectious deaths attributable to a given infectious syndrome, proportion of infectious syndrome deaths attributable to a given pathogen, the percentage of a given pathogen resistant to an antibiotic of interest, and the excess risk of death or duration of an infection associated with this resistance The headline that you wrote phrases this as "died of superbacteria", does this relate to the number where an infection played a role or the number attributable to a given pathogen?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

mrtri 5y ago

pshirshov 5y ago

Well. There are two old St.Aureus vaccines which, in combination, allowed me to eradicate MRSA which I got during a hospital stay. One these vaccines was created long time ago in USSR for veterinary workers, another one - to treat skin infections in babies. Both are still produced and available though most of the doctors are not aware of them. Both, of course, were never tested in proper trials. Not like anyone cares. https://www.rlsnet.ru/tn_index_id_5850.htm https://www.rlsnet.ru/tn_index_id_5850.htm https://www.vidal.ru/drugs/therapeutic_staphylococcal_vaccine_staphylococcal_antifagin___42878 https://www.vidal.ru/drugs/therapeutic_staphylococcal_vaccin...

b112 5y ago
Interesting. I wonder on the issues, efficacy, etc. TB vaccine is troublesome and not that effective, to the point that some debate it should not be used, tetanus seems wildly successful. (These are the only other bacteria vaccines I know of)
- greatpatton 5y ago
  They are many bacterial vaccine out there against pneumococcal, meningococcal, typhoid fever, cholera, haemophilus influenzae type B etc.

tim333 5y ago

There's some hope maybe with >Microorganisms found in dirt have yielded antibiotics that can kill pathogens resistant to multiple drugs. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01931-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01931-4 and similar stuff? We could do with some government action to develop some and ban using them in farming.