Here's the latest OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE from the people that brought you the Swine Flu pandemic:
Scientists find new superbug spreading from India
A new superbug could spread around the world after reaching Britain from India -- in part because of medical tourism -- and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it.
Researchers said on Wednesday they had found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in South Asia and in Britain.
NDM-1 makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems, and experts say there are no new drugs on the horizon to tackle it.
First thought: Didn't they just recent announce that the Swine Flu pandemic (that was ZOMG GOING TO KILL US ALL BY MELTING OUR FACES OFF) was winding down?
Second thought: Speaking of the Swine Flu, wasn't there a little brouhaha over the fact that a third of the members of the WHO Swine Flu Advisory Council had ties to the pharmaceutical industry?
Third thought: "Medical tourism" is leading to cases of this "superbug" being brought back to England? Huh? Doesn't England have free universal health care, a system that we are being told to emulate here in the US? Aren't the Europeans so much more enlightened that the evil ol' capitalist USA in that they offer free health care to their citizens? Why, then, would anyone need to travel to India for medical care?
In any case, it's another item to tack on the list of the Taxonomy of Modern Dangers...
That is all.
17 comments:
What gun for superbugs?
Tam... that would be...
Phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.. :)
Well, the skinnies take a flamethrower... Bugs need the micro-nukes...
Medical tourism is shorthand for cosmetic surgery or in some cases unproven cures. Even here and during the pre-national health care era were still cosmetic or experimental also shorthand for you pay not insurance/national health care. After all we don't fix big noses unless it's a health issue and usually it's not.
The bug thing is well, not news. Medicine for a long time has said that bug we can kill begets bugs that are harder to kill. It's that sticky evolution thing.
The lowly sneeze should get a "Rule 2, Muzzle!" rather than "bless you". After all someones bug is not a blessing to me.
Eck!
I see now that they've gone BACK to naming flu strains after the places they originate.
Remember? Swine flu was called (for about 2 weeks) Mexican flu because it originated in Mexico. Then people got all butthurt and said it was racist to call it Mexican Flu, even though that's the standard naming convention.
Then after they called it swine flu, we had to rename it AGAIN to H1N1 because pig farmers got all butthurt.
So now it appears we've gone back to the standard naming convention, because really who cares if a billion Indians are given a stigma?
All I want to know is will this new Superbug turn people into Zombies or not? If No, then I'll just go plan for the "Life After People" scenario. If Yes, then I'm gonna need some range time working on my Head Shots.
Eck! said...Medical tourism is shorthand for cosmetic surgery or in some cases unproven cures...
HOWTO Get Your Teeth Fixed in Mexico
Some medical researchers have been talking about "The end of the age of antibiotics" for a while, but I don't know that this is it.
The big problem is that antibiotics are being overused in all areas of medicine. The more antibiotics that are used, the more danger there is that the bacteria will produce mutations that are resistant to them.
If that happens. We. Are. Screwed.
"Well, the skinnies take a flamethrower... Bugs need the micro-nukes..."
And it's Jay G with the Heinlein FTW!
Actually, I think for this kind of superbug you'll want a .00000000038 cal. +P, in JHP, of course.
ahhhh.....
well not to point out the obvious but
antibiotics NEVER treated the flu VIRUS....
sorry lmao
misread....
thought the article was referring to the flu virus variant
Yah...the same CDC that predicted (as JayG pointed out) ZOMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! over some perceived pandemic (side note...the CDC actually says the pandemic happened, and is now over. Huh? Where are the billions of bodybags?????) and failed miserably in that prediction, is now, IMHO, manufacturing an even *biger* boogey-man with which to scare the populace, which in turn will spur Goobermint into action so as to not let a good *crisis* go to waste, and they will attempt, yet again, to reach up into our collective asses and try to extract yet one more Golden Egg from the Goose that is the American Taxpayer.
November cannot get here fast enough...
Flamethrower works for me :-)
Swine flu, and before that bird flu, and before that SARS ... I ignore them the same way that I ignore "climate change" because of global warming, and before that global cooling, and before that DDT, and before that the population bomb. They should read that story about the boy who cried wolf.
But does the super bug come as a convertible?
In the interests of complete fairness I would say that cosmetic surgery is not covered by the HNS (unless it is a matter of neccessity such as cleft palate). Now you can get your nose done in the UK but you pay, and isn't that the fair thing? Or you can go to India but guess what no one in Europe would come to the good old US of A for medical treatment.
The Coffee Bastard, Europeans come to the United States all the time for medical treatment. Specifically for fertility treatment, as I know first-hand.
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