Article of the week
What would the world look like if microbial resistance to antibiotics really took hold? A possible glimpse was afforded by Luke Andrews of the Mail, [1]citing the work of Frontiers in Microbiology (although we think the latter are paywalled to ordinary mortals). Luke’s article is balanced and judicious. He admits that the current wave of lung infections that’s worrying authorities in China may have several causes. But he zeroes in on one particular trope: the rise of a strain of Mycoplasma pneumoniae that is becoming almost entirely resistant to antibiotics, especially azithromycin. The cause? Over prescription and overuse. But according to an excellent graphic in Luke’s article, resistance rates in this organism are running at close to 100% in China, compared to 10-15% rates in Europe and the USA.
We hope the outbreak can be controlled, and that the children of China can lead happy, healthy lives. However, the fact that articles like this are now being written shows a world teetering on the edge of mass outbreaks. And there are many, many organisms which will prove more lethal, and faster spreading, than M. pneumoniae. To imagine that this is a Chinese problem is to indulge fatuous nationalism at its worse. Bacteria do not choose between nations. Nor between fools and the wise. They just kill.
Chineseshttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12854847/china-white-lung-superbugs.html
#microbial resistance to antibiotics #china #Mycoplasma pneumoniae #azithromycin #white lung
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