Way back in the last decade, when most of us were just waking up to the threat of microbial resistance to antibiotics, one person had been campaigning indefatigably for years. She was, and is Dame Sally Davies, former Chief Medical Officer of the UK, and a formidable intellect. Together with Professor Colin Garner , she was one of the moving spirits in promoting awareness, bringing in the great and the good, and generally getting us all moving.
So it is with unbridled honour and humility that we reproduce her latest article, for the Guardian news site, on the eve of the UN conference on the subject in New York. It’s a great state-of-play, this-is where-we-are now summary from some one who really does know. And it’s a quick easy read, which is more than you can say for some of the publications we hyperlink on these pages!
Yes, the situation is far from resolved. But without Dame Sally and the early pioneers, there probably wouldn’t have been such a conference at all. Or any of the other progress we have made in this last ten years or so. Thank you, great woman. Many people will one day owe their lives to you.
The jury’s been out on the UK summer riots. But now it’s back. And the verdict is grim. The causes are clear, and demonstrable. Most of the rioters were not outside agitators. They were locals. And the places local to them are rotten with deprivation, bad health and unemployment. The findings are laid out for all to see in this pooled report from Guardian writers. [1] Their findings make grim reading for everyone, of whatever political persuasion. But sackcloth and ashes most of all are reserved for those who believe the antique slogans about untrammelled free markets, economic liberalisation, risk takers and free movement of goods and people being best for society.
Because what they forgot to tell us was that there are far more losers than winners in such a set-up. That whole communities would whither away into stagnation and despair. In such circumstances people do not make rational, considered judgements. They just get angry and resentful. Is it so surprising some of them riot? A free market purist would argue that nothing is more capitalist than immigration. Who takes more risks than an immigrant, by tearing up their roots and starting again in a new country? But clearly the natives don’t take such an objective view. Their riots are a sign of something much deeper.
Across the world, a massive reaction to the free movement of people has begun. Naturally, it extends to goods and services, as trade tariffs rise again, and local sourcing is everywhere preferred. Powerful demographic forces are making sure that free movement, markets and migration are coming to an end. The very forces unleashed by liberalism have ensured their own demise.
We at LSS do not believe that communism or faith-based economics are the answer. This is a Whig website, not a socialist one. We think the answer lies in a different model of Capitalism, In the next blog or two we will make suggestions as to what these may look like. These suggestions will be tentative, and humble. But unless we learn to think in different ways, and soon, even the educated will end up joining the others in final despair.
We’ve been in the habit of making clarion calls for new research on anti-microbial drugs here for donkey’s years now. Even reported, where we could, on promising new results. Progress has been slow, we admit. But if you lift your head up and look at the bigger picture, there’s quite a lot of stuff we could be doing to ward off the fateful day when every bacterium becomes resistant. And once again, it’s that excellent website Nature Briefings which suggests some simple, common sense steps people can take now to keep them safe. Particularly in poorer countries, where the stupidities of the world economic order have combined to make cash a little tight. They’ve put up two blocks today, with links, and they’re well worth a read.
HOW TO SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVESLast week, we learnt that more than 39 million people could die from antibiotic-resistant infections by 2050. But it doesn’t have to be that way, argues epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan — if we make sure that people in low- and middle-income countries get the appropriate antibiotics they need. “Even a fairly modest global investment — in the range of hundreds of millions of US dollars — to help prevent bacterial infections and improve access to relatively inexpensive antibiotics could avert millions of deaths,” he writes.Nature | 5 min read Reference: The Lancet report
STRAIGHTFORWARD SOLUTIONS TO AMR Better sanitation, improved infection control practices at health-care facilities and increased vaccination are among the solutions proposed by four specialists — from Bangladesh, Brazil, Nigeria and the Middle East — who spoke to Nature ahead of a United Nations meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). For example, microbiologist Iruka Okeke says that access to clean water and toilets in Nigeria could reduce gastric infections and AMR simultaneously, yielding an estimated return of US$5 or more for every $1 spent.Nature | 10 min read
We always like it when brisk, cheap solutions, using existing ideas and technology make a real difference. We hope you do too, gentle readers.
#antibiotics #drug resistant micro-organisms #health #sanitation #clean water
Old hands on the LSS blog may be forgiven for thinking antibiotic resistance is all about bacteria, and that it all goes in in hospital with lots of medical folk in white coats and humming machines that do funny things with graphs, and all that sort of thing.
Well, it’s about a lot more than that. It isn’t just bacteria that are resistant to our drugs. Down on the farm, there’s a whole class of creatures called Playtyhelminths (aka flatworms) that can do untold damage to sheep, for example. For years their ravages have been controlled by drugs. Now theses pesky creatures are showing strong resistance to these drugs, And to make matters worse, these drugs are getting into nature from the sheep pastures, and starting to wreak havoc there. It’s a lose-lose situation. And we, that is to say humanity, are the losers.[1]
Why is this happening? It’s Natural Selection in action. The flatworms in the sheep guts are animals like any other. Expose them to a threat, (antagonistic drugs) and most will die. But a very few will carry resistant genes, thrown up by random mutation. They and their offspring will survive, and multiply. Mightily. Just like all those bacteria do with the drugs we send against them. The point is resistance is just an evolutionary response. It will happen everywhere at all times. The trick is to stay ahead of it. And the way to do that is to spend a little more on science and research labs. To plan to educate more people with the scientific habit of mind, where we suspend judgement and become open to evidence. And listen a little less to the kind of unreasoning. emotion driven story telling that pollutes so much of the Information Sphere. Some hope.
CREDIT We got this story by watching an episode of the popular BBC television programme Countryfile. [2] Not quite our normal cup of tea, you might think? Well, its amazing how their light, cheerful style gives you an in to some much deeper issues. Worth the odd watch, we say.
Is AI going to be a game-changer in science? We mean really, really, the way X-ray crystallography transformed our understanding of matter, or Carbon-14 techniques kickstarted a revolution in dating? Never get too carried away: but two stories from Nature Briefings suggest that it will soon be telling us things which we never guessed before. And so we present them unadorned, so you can judge for yourselves, gentle readers. There are a couple of good hyperlinks, which could be worth a quick delve in to if you have more time than a single cup of coffee.
Alpha Fold reveals how Viruses evolved Protein structures predicted by AI models have revealed some twists in the evolution of flaviviruses — a group that includes hepatitis C, dengue and Zika viruses. Researchers used DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 and Meta’s ESMFold to generate more than 33,000 predicted structures for proteins from 458 flavivirus species. They already uncovered some surprises. For example, the hepatitis C virus infects cells using an entry system similar to one seen in the pestiviruses — a group that includes animal pathogens like swine fever. Another big surprise was the discovery that some flaviviruses have an enzyme that seems to have been stolen from bacteria.Nature | 5 min read Reference: Nature paper
As if the threat from cancer, dementia and heart disease wasn’t enough, the world’s older inhabitants face a new danger. It’s our old friend antibiotic resistance-and it’s growing fast. That’s according to Kat Lay of the Guardian,[1] who has produced a fascinating review of the work of the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance Project.[2.3} They looked at data from 204 countries from 1990 to 2021, and have projected their findings forwards into the 2050s.
Young people will suffer from the problem it’s true. But their overall death rate from infections has been falling, partly from the success of things like improved hygiene and vaccination problems. It’s among the elderly that the situation gets bleak. Their death rates from antibiotic resistant organisms have skyrocketed by 80% over the last three decades. The authors estiamte by 2050 this demographic will be suffering 1.3 million deaths per year directly from resistant organism infections. And the resistance will be implicated, at least in part in a further 8.2 million annual deaths. Readers of LSS will observe, wearily, that every one of them will be avoidable.
So, what to say after all these years of blogging? After reporting on the work of so many fine researchers, and thanking so many fine journalists like Kat, and all her colleagues who labour tirelessly to keep this problem on the public eye? The fact that people are more aware of all this than when we started back in ’15 is something. And there have been signs of progress, as we have sometimes noted here. Keep people aware, readers. If you see a journalist who has raised it, try to find a way to thank them. Keep giving money to the charities who are trying to do something about it.[4] And, as with many things-don’t stop hoping
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.comPhoto by Irina Babina Nature and Wildlife on Pexels.comPhoto by Google DeepMind on Pexels.com
A few years ago we published a blog (LSS 27 10 20;6 9 21) wherein we hymned the praises of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). Specifically, because these scary monitors could be a source of new antibiotics. Why might that be? Because they spend their lives feeding on filthy, rotting carrion and should therefore be all dead by now.
So why do carrion eaters (wolves flies, vultures are but some of the many types of animals that come to mind) not only survive, but thrive in their chosen niche? One which to us seems a little unpleasant and down market. According to Tim Cushnie, Darren Sexton and Vijitra Luang-In of the Conversation, these intrepid beasts have each developed a range of techniques to avoid bacterial infections which must be thriving on their dinners. What interests us most on this blog their chemical defences. They seemed to have evolved pathogen recognition and destruction systems which are far in advance of their carnivorous and herbivorous relatives. The authors cite several classes of compound which seem to ripe for exploration. And indeed are being explored by researchers in Germany, China and the US.[2]
And the moral of the story? Firstly, do not despise carrion feeders. They are Nature’s clean-up squad. Secondly, there must be hundreds of other plants and animals in nature which may have equally useful contents. So, if you tear down nature to build a car park you will probably have lost something. Finally, if used our Universities to train up a few more Biologists and a few less accountants, we are all going to be much, much richer.
Why is there no “cause and effect” model of mental disorders and problems? it’s a problem that has intrigued us for more than fifty years; and has more than once been lamented on these pages. Despite the heroic endeavours of thousands of hard working researchers and scholars, we seem little nearer tangible, reproducible solutions.
Until this week when we came across an article by Anthea Rowan of the New Scientist which honestly made our hair stand up.[1] Initially the article is about OCD.(obsessive-compulsive disorder) But in it, for the first time, we have come across what may be real hints of what is going on at a neurological and molecular level in the unfortunate victims of many mental abnormalities. And from that emerges the first possibility of real and lasting cures for their suffering.
We won’t steal Andrea’s thunder (you’ll need a paywall jump if you use the link), But we will try to summarise some of her salient points, and urge you to read further.
It’s the genes Get this quote from her:
“…half of the risk of developing OCD is down to our genes..[a study]…examined genomes of nearly 40000 people with OCD and identified 15 genetic signatures associated with the conditio including ones for proteins that influence brain function and development ….one of the signatures…. was associated with genes for the major histocompatibility complex(MHC)[2] ….a region of DNA that plays an important role in the immune system and has also been linked to other mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder “(our bold)
It’s in the immune system
“…….a case in point is two related conditions called PANS and PANDAs in which children can suddenly develop OCD symptoms anxiety or tics seemingly in response to an infection….”
It’s in the gut
“… a team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University….transplanted faecal gut microbiota from humans with OCD into mice. Two weeks later the mice began to exhibit repetitive behaviours and signs of anxiety..….
Why are we so excited? Because here at last are three tangible, well defined pathways for research. Each contains definable, repeatable units like molecules, tissues and nerve ganglia. No more hard to prove social theories or endlessly debated diagnoses. Instead a chance to start again from the bottom up. And maybe find a pattern of molecular-level abnormalities which can be identified, defined and remedied in a controlled and repeatable manner. The research will be long. Cures are still very far away. But the right paths have now been identified. And that is some cause for hope.
Well, it was the end of the week, gentle readers, and we hoped that we had finished you off in a satisfactory manner with not one but two great stories (count em, two!). But then our researchers came to us with this great picture story and we just couldn’t resist.
It’s written by Perkin Amalraj of the Mail. But, before overseas readers dive into Perkin’s lapidary prose, a word of explanation. As both English and Spanish readers will know, the town of Benidorm is famous for its welcoming attitude to foreign holiday makers. Moreover it displays little of the snobby exclusivity that one might find in places like the Côte d’Azur or Gstaad. No, Benidorm welcomes all, at prices all may afford. To enjoy a week of sunshine, fine dining and gentle exercise in the balmy sea breezes. No prim or prescriptive demands to learn the local language customs or cuisine are enforced either. One might as well be in Basildon or Burnley, it’s just hotter.
But sometimes pictures speak more than a thousand words, every one of them. And so we invite you to click on the link and enjoy ad essay in photojournalism of the highest quality, and greatest interest. And remember-there is no one as interesting as the people next door. Well not next door, hopefully. From a few streets away
Syphilis, that terror of the early modern age, is back. Almost eliminated in the 1990s, by 2022 here were 200 000 cases in the US alone. And, if you are not worried start now. Because this is waht it does according to this short extract from Jessica Glenza of the Guardian [1]
“More advanced stages of the disease can bring feared complications, such as neurosyphilis, with dementia-like effects, or ocular syphilis that can cause blindness. Congenital syphilis, when the disease is passed from mother to child, is a special horror: the disease can cause death and neurological devastation in infants.“
How have we let it get out of control, and rather more pertinently, what can be done about it? The first is easy to answer: neglect of medical services to pay for tax cuts, and the general concentration on the narcissistic rewards of a consumer society. The latter is rather more interesting. And it sits across many of the concerns we raise on these pages, such as antibiotics, testing, new DNA based technologies and all the other things we admit we bang on about too often(no wonder we never get invited to parties) And frankly, Jessica’s article is a tour de force from which you will learn much about these many subjects, gentle readers.
While not wishing to spoil her article, which you must read, we’ll leave you with this particular thought. There is an antibiotic available: Bicillin L-A. But waht happens if it runs out, or significant resistance to it develop?. We suggest that you keep monitoring these pages.
Learning, Science and Society 