[Carlhole]

Popsci

Good morning, readers. Settled in, ready to take on the day? Great, we hope you have a good one. Also, FYI, a new mutation that makes bacteria resistant to pretty much every antibiotic known to man has become increasingly prevalent on the Indian subcontinent and has made the leap to both the UK and the United States, according to a new report in the Lancet. Because there's nothing modern medical science can do to stop it, the NDM-1 "superbug" may spread globally. Anyhow, enjoy your Thursday.

To hell with oil, here's something evolutionary to worry about.

I guess, I've always felt that if the ptb wanted to quickly reduce population, it wouldn't be that hard to engineer. It seems so damnably doable.

[IslandCrow]

In the 'good olde days' Monty among others pointed out that any die-off would be largely down to disease.

At present the numbers are very low, but it has potential. Lets hope that it turns out a bit like swine flu (ie not nearly as bad as it could have been)

Q&A: NDM-1 superbugs: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10930031

As with most new bugs a political row is starting over claims of where it started: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10954890

From the preceding article, the idea of health tourism cames into play:

Scientists say patients who went to India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery have come back with bacteria that make NDM-1 enzyme.

[Carlhole]

So much is known now about genetics, and increasing rapidly. If you have a secret knowledge about genetic exploits and vulnerabilities, that's tremendous power. Question is: will real engineered viruses be as manageable as computer viruses.

[Tanada]

This is the doing of lazy human nature, instead of determining what people are sick from and targeting the specific bacteria Doctors for the last 60 years have just flooded people with general anti-bacterial medication and now our descendants will reap the results with the return of many minor diseases that will each kill 2-5% of the population.

[Expatriot]

This is the doing of lazy human nature, instead of determining what people are sick from and targeting the specific bacteria Doctors for the last 60 years have just flooded people with general anti-bacterial medication and now our descendants will reap the results with the return of many minor diseases that will each kill 2-5% of the population.

I'm a bit more cynical. I'd ascribe the overuse of antibiotics to . . .

1. The ignorance of your average mother/sick person.
2. The greed of doctors.

If I was a doctor, I'd tell the mom - hey, your kid has a virus, and there's nothing I can do. Give him a few days. If he's not better, call me.

But that would mean that the patient would find another doctor.

EDIT - BTW, this issue is not one of a "superbug," but rather of a "supergene." What they figured out a decade or two ago is that particularly useful genes, like the one described, can jump between species. Eventually, it is presummed, the gene will make its way to Staph and TB and then it's kaPow for all of us.

[EnergyUnlimited]

Life is not easy to engineer, and creating super bugs is not "damnably doable." Otherwise Bin Laden would have sprayed the WTC's with an aerosol instead of airplanes.

Even if doable, ideas to reduce population in such way is plain stupid.

Conspirators could get much more than they initially bargained for.
They could easily end up to be the victims themselves and any preventive vaccination could prove useless due to bug mutations.

Any living pathogen released to environment is unpredictable and cannot be controlled anymore.

BTW.
I still consider some deliberate "re-introduction" of smallpox to be a credible threat.
I am vaccinated against it, my wife as well is vaccinated but my kids are not...

[Subjectivist]

More at the link,

The first new antibiotic to be discovered in nearly 30 years has been hailed as a ‘paradigm shift’ in the fight against the growing resistance to drugs.
Teixobactin has been found to treat many common bacterial infections such as tuberculosis, septicaemia and C. diff, and could be available within five years.
But more importantly it could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotics because of the way it was discovered.
Scientists have always believed that the soil was teeming with new and potent antibiotics because bacteria have developed novel ways to fight off other microbes.
But 99 per cent of microbes will not grow in laboratory conditions leaving researchers frustrated that they could not get to the life-saving natural drugs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... rough.html