Lots of hoopla this week (when this was written). The FDA is finally acting- it’s asking the big farms to stop using antibiotics when their animals are not sick. What, you say? You mean we use antibiotics for animals that are healthy? You betcha!
Continue reading Why don’t my drugs work?
You have the sniffles. You ache. You complain. You call your doctor. He prescribes antibiotics. All is well? Right?
I ran across this information the other day. It kind of shocked me- I guess I was not paying attention in my microbiology class. Actually, not- I checked my texts and found no mention in the index. You see, in 1954, Francois Jacob (Institut Pasteur, Paris) described a “pyocin”, a chemical exuded by a strain of microbes (Pseudomonas pyocyanea, now called Pseudomonas aeruginosa) that killed another species of P. aeruginosa. When examined under the electron microscope, these pyocins were found to resemble a rocket- the ones they show in cartoons- one thick tube with several fibers protruding out of its end. It turns out the thick tube also contains a thinner one, that gets expelled by the outer tube (via contraction) to inject itself into the cell wall of the target cell. Killing it.
Continue reading Killer Rocket Ships
We have a real problem. Our antibiotics are becoming less effective against microbes. The reason is simple- the bacteria (to paraphrase from the King and I) have become accustomed to your face- they have begun mutating to make themselves invulnerable to the actions of the antibiotics. The source of this problem is also simple- it’s us.
Continue reading If we don’t stop these practices, we won’t have viable antibiotics