Rise of the Superbugs

Martin Lynch from CCC-  

HIV- in CCC the cases reported with HIV (ie. people who knew) were equal to the amount estimated to have HIV, but not know it 

ie. 600 people have HIV and know it, and estimated 600 have HIV and don’t know it

Rise of the Superbugs

Resistance

1. How does antibiotic resistance occur?

-misuse of drugs- people don’t take all of the antibiotics leaving stronger bacteria

- transfer of resistant plasmids in bacteria

2. Give some examples of superbugs?

-MDR-TB= Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis

- MRSA= drug resistant staph

- XDR-TB= Extensive Drug Resistant TB

MDR-TB

1. Contrast traditional treatment of TB with treatment of MDR-TB.

- MDR-TB= resistant against most of the antibiotics used to treat traditional TB

-the drugs that are used to treat have toxic side effects, are very expensive, and more rare (2nd line drugs)

- MDR-TB is more toxic- ie. strain has more side effects than traditional TB

- in trial tx drugs taken for 2 yrs (traditional TB tx= take antibiotics for 6 months)

2. Why is directly observed therapy so important?

- to make sure patients continue to take medication once they start feeling better bc that promotes resistance

New Drug Development

1. Why do drug companies not want to develop new antibiotics?

- high cost to develop- takes up to 10 years, hard to find 

- chance of resistance

-also, daily drugs like for cholesterol give more profits

2. Give an example of a new antibiotic. 

Tigecycline- derivative of tetracycline