"SuperGerm" Epidemic Grabs Attention - But Prevention Focus Intentionally Misdirected

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- More than 90,000 Americans get potentially

deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug,"

the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of

invasive disease caused by the germ.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be carried by healthy

people, living on the skin or in their noses.

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said

one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows

just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its

traditional hospital setting.

The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per

100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in

Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which

published the study.

Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin infections. But this

study focused on invasive infections -- those that enter the

bloodstream or destroy flesh and can turn deadly.

Researchers found that only about one-quarter involved hospitalized

patients. However, more than half were in the health care system --

people who had recently had surgery or were on kidney dialysis, for

example. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways

the bug spreads.

In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in

hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker

rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.

The new study offers the broadest look yet at the pervasiveness of the

most severe infections caused by the bug, called methicillin-resistant

Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. These bacteria can be carried by

healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses.

- - - - -

So ... don't get sick - because that stay in the hospital

will probably kill you .....

It appears these aggressive and highly-resistant strains of

bacteria have now spread far and wide. Fortunately there are

antibiotics that will cope with (most of) them ... but the

rate at which new antibiotics are being created has slowed

greatly over the past decades, a big change from the 50s

and 60s where it seemed there was a new wonder-drug a week.

Unfortunately, there's a trend to deny antibiotics to people

under certain circumstances. The theory being offered is that

"over-use" for ear/throat infections has spawned these nasty

superbugs.

What's CAREFULLY IGNORED is the massive, insanely massive,

use of antibiotics by AGRICULTURE. You see, relieved of the

metabolic burden imposed by having to fight germs on their

own, cows and sheep, piggies and horsies can all grow really

big really fast. Antibiotics also make it feasable to pack

chickens wing-2-wing in gigantic meat/egg farms where,

ordinarly, disease would spread like wildfire.

The farmers trudge through the antibiotic-laden poop ... and

then into town, or into the fields where your cucumbers grow.

They also flush all that poop into the nearest canal, where

your dog swims and then shakes-off the wet in the middle

of your living room. Farmers kids go to school with your

kids. Farmers go to church, to market and movies too.

Farmers are (generally) not doctors. They're likely to use

the wrong antibiotics at the wrong doses for the wrong

reasons at the wrong times. Well, generally, ALL the time.

The result - superbugs on a literally industrial scale.

Some alarmists complain about traces of antibiotics in

the actual food which comes from those over-dosed animals

but that's not the problem - the amounts are too tiny to

make any difference. It's the personal contact and poop

from those animals over periods of months or years. That

is where the superbugs grow, that is how they spread to

the rest of the nation.

Now why is mention of the agricultural connection CAREFULLY

AVOIDED ? Gee ... why do YOU think it is ? Might it have

something to do with MONEY and LOBBYISTS - both from the

ag sector AND the pharma companies that sell antibiotics

to the farmers by the megaton ??? Nah ! Can't be !!!

But next time some doc-in-the-box tells you that Junior

has to suffer and maybe go deaf from that ear infection,

or that YOU do, just remember whose interests they're

REALLY serving. Not yours, not theirs - but factory

agriculture and pharma lobbyists.

Time to eliminate the broadscale, indiscriminant use of

antibiotics on our farms. Save the drugs for the PEOPLE.

Eliminate HUMAN suffering - instead of fattening farmer

Browns, and Big-Pharmas, wallets. Only then can we get a

grip on the superbug problem.

Oh yea, when 'conventional' antibotics quit fattening

the hogs, the farmers switch to those NEW antibiotics,

the ones WE are counting on to deal with MRSA superbug

infections. They'll burn-out their utility within just

a year or two ... and then where will you be when YOU

get one of those nasty flesh-eating infections, hmmm ?

Six feet under, that's where. Of course your kids may

be buried alongside you too, to keep you company .....

EVENTUALLY RNA-based antibiotics will start to show up.

These will be ultra-specific and easy to re-tool should

resistance appear. They work by binding-up selected

RNAs that bacteria (or cancer cells) need to survive

while leaving everything else alone. "Eventually"

could be two years, five years or ten+ years alas.

Meanwhile the superbugs will continue to permeate

the worlds population and become even stronger. There

are probably some on your toothbrush right now

One plus about superbugs ... there's finally a reason to

shut down school sports and PE programs becuase the germs

love locker-rooms. The jocks will have to (horrors !)

LEARN TO READ AND WRITE ! Schools will have to spend

money on BOOKS instead of stadiums ! What a disaster ! :-)