Post-antibiotic era - The antibiotic apocalypse

[Neil]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27204988 Resistance to antibiotics poses a "major global threat" to public health, says a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO). It analysed data from 114 countries and said resistance was happening now "in every region of the world". It described a "post-antibiotic era", where people die from simple infections that have been treatable for decades. There were likely to be "devastating" implications unless "significant" action was taken urgently, it added.

[bassman]

I'm not surprised. I guess you could consider me "old school" in that I don't go to the doctor unless it's something serious. If I catch a cold, I stay my ass in bed for a day or two and try to fight it off myself. Only after my body fails to do the work itself do I go to the doctor. That's a lot of the reason for this, imo. Too many people/parents rush their kids to the doctor at the first sign of sickness and then the kids are doped up with antibiotics. Never even giving the child's immune system to do it's job. My daughter's mother and I never saw eye to eye on that...

[MoonSylver]

Between this, the chances of a NEW virus or other bug emerging, asteroid impact, looming threat of war, bird flu, super volcano eruption, or the coming A.I. singularity, I don't know which one is going to extinct us first! Did I miss any? I hafta keep all my extinction level events in line so I know what to stress over.

[bassman]

You forgot the wrath of god. Other than that I think you covered all the extinction fears of mankind.

[Neil]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34269315 Highly drug-resistant gonorrhoea is spreading in the north of England with an outbreak centred in Leeds, sexual health doctors have told the BBC. One of the main treatments has become useless against the new strain of the sexually transmitted infection. . . . The outbreak in Leeds adds to growing concern that gonorrhoea is becoming untreatable. In 2011, Japan reported a case of complete resistance to cephalosporin-class antibiotics, which included the main treatment ceftriaxone.

[MinionZombie]

All the more reason for those sex robots we're talking about in another thread!

[Neil]

All the more reason for those sex robots we're talking about in another thread! Can you catch rust?

[MinionZombie]

Can you catch rust? Well, what I do know for certain is that I wouldn't want any of it getting into my old chap! Ooh, it'd be like the stuff on old park swings. *shudders*

[MoonSylver]

Make her chassis out of chrome & stainless steel, or polymers and ceramics, & her "imput" ports out of rubber and latex. Ideally modular so that you could swap them out when they become...worn... *pfft* amateurs...

[MinionZombie]

Make her chassis out of chrome & stainless steel, or polymers and ceramics, & her "imput" ports out of rubber and latex. Ideally modular so that you could swap them out when they become...worn... *pfft* amateurs... Now we know what Moon does for a living/hobby...

[MoonSylver]

Now we know what Moon does for a living/hobby... Nope. Not even close...just an interested "layman"...

[Neil]

Warnings that we are on the cusp - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34857015 The world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed. They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort - colistin - in patients and livestock in China. They said that resistance would spread around the world and raised the spectre of untreatable infections. It is likely resistance emerged after colistin was overused in farm animals. Bacteria becoming completely resistant to treatment - also known as the antibiotic apocalypse - could plunge medicine back into the dark ages. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21702647 A terrible future could be on the horizon, a future which rips one of the greatest tools of medicine out of the hands of doctors. A simple cut to your finger could leave you fighting for your life. Luck will play a bigger role in your future than any doctor could. The most basic operations - getting an appendix removed or a hip replacement - could become deadly. Cancer treatments and organ transplants could kill you. Childbirth could once again become a deadly moment in a woman's life. It's a future without antibiotics.

[MinionZombie]

Well I hope they're cracking on with finding a way to combat this - although didn't anyone think this was inevitable? Viruses mutate, so wasn't it obvious that they'd change to combat the medicine stopping them? It's things like this that we need researched, not whether drinking tea is good or bad for you ... rather than groups wasting money on that sort of tabloid filler, chuck it all at developing new anti-biotics and ways to tackle cancer (especially the most severe and hard to survive cancers - pancreatic cancer is still a fucking disaster ).

[Neil]

There are now sexually transmitted diseases that cannot be treated - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40520125

[LivingDeadGuy]

You forgot the wrath of god. Other than that I think you covered all the extinction fears of mankind. I think we humans will end up killing ourselves long before "God" does if he even exists (which I doubt).