Misuse of antibiotics has been a major driver of resistance—both in strain-specific bacteria and gene-based resistance. "Prudent antibiotic use should always be the goal," Limbago says. But "once the gene is there, it's there. And at that point, the genie's out of the bottle."

After resistance has started circulating, surveillance and infection control become the key tools to fight further spread. The U.S. does not have KPC- or NDM-1–specific strategies, but offers recommendations for all CRE-positive infections. The government also does not require hospitals to report CRE cases, but even so, infections have been confirmed in at least 35 states. Rather than being cautious about the growing concern over NDM-1 and other resistance genes, Limbago suggests that, "in some places in the U.S. people are not getting as excited about this as they should."

6 Comments

1. 1. Jackie Wong 10:59 AM 12/16/10

   Loose regulation of antibiotics accelerate the evolution of microbes,which makes many species no longer vulnerable to antibiotics.This situation is much worse in developing countries like China,Inida.
   Scientist must accelerate development of new pharmaceutials to stop noxious microorganisms from hurting human beings' heath .
   Good Luck

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2. 2. robert schmidt 04:41 PM 12/16/10

   I know of four people that have had life threatening infections by resistant strains of bacteria. Two during child birth. As the article says, more people need to get excited about this. It is not as headline catching as SARS or Bird Flu but it has the potential to do a great deal of damage.

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3. 3. letxequalx 05:36 PM 12/16/10

   Now all we need is an air borne antibiotic resistant bacteria that causes PID and then we could have the world population under control

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4. 4. bucketofsquid 10:21 AM 12/22/10

   I never thought that my aversion to large groups would have a useful function. It seems that avoiding people has the benefit of reducing exposure oportunities. I'd imagine that monogamy proponents will jump on this as a way of reducing exposure as well.
   
   Bacterial illnesses have historically been more deadly than viral but that changed with antibiotics. It looks like the pendulum is swinging back the other way again.

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5. 5. dylluvzjc 05:00 AM 12/28/10

   i guess we have to work more on medical biotechnology then

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6. 6. pritih 10:55 AM 2/1/11

   very good article.......
   
   http://www.whatisimmunity.com

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