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Medicine Science

Resistant Bacteria Are Advancing Faster Than Antibiotics (wired.com) 59

Posted by msmash from the grave-concerns dept.
The proliferation of difficult-to-treat bacterial diseases represents a growing threat, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report. Wired: The report reveals that, between 2018 and 2023, antibiotic resistance increased by more than 40 percent in monitored pathogen-drug combinations, with an average annual increase of 5-15 percent. According to data reported by more than 100 countries to WHO's Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS), one in six laboratory-confirmed bacteria in 2023 proved resistant to antibiotic treatment, all related to various common diseases globally.

For the first time, this edition of the report includes prevalence estimates of resistance to 22 antibiotics used to treat urinary tract, gastrointestinal, bloodstream, and gonorrheal conditions. The analysis focused on eight common pathogens: Acinetobacter spp, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, non-typhoidal Salmonella spp, Shigella spp, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. The results show that resistant gram-negative bacteria pose the greatest threat. Of particular note are Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which are associated with bloodstream infections that can lead to sepsis, organ failure, and death. "More than 40 percent of E. coli and more than 55 percent of K. pneumoniae strains worldwide are now resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, the first-choice treatment for these types of infections," the report warns.
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Resistant Bacteria Are Advancing Faster Than Antibiotics More

Resistant Bacteria Are Advancing Faster Than Antibiotics

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  • Oh wait that's autism. Anyway I'm sure we can treat it all with colloidal silver and or horse dewormer.

    Anyone notice how triggered the right wing gets when you talk about horse dewormer?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Anyone notice how triggered the right wing gets when you talk about horse dewormer?

      Yep. Including the most excessively dumb ones that will claim that was the right recommendation and that it works just fine.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Come to think of it, I wonder whether there are already databases that estimate how easy each individual is to manipulate and how unable to fact-check. For the loud assholes, that would be easy to do. Obviously, the smart ones are in real danger, see the purges that Stalin did.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hey! ( 33014 )

          Not *explicitly*. Offering such a database would be an invitation for people to look at the whole data broker industry. So what you, as a databroker who tracks and piegeonholes every human being who uses the Internet to a fare-the-well, do to tap into the market for lists of gullible yokels? You offer your customer, literally anyone with money, the ability to zero in on the gullible by choosing appropriate proxies.

          For example, you can get a list of everyone who has searched for "purchasing real estate with

      • 5 years in and still no evidence Ivermectin does anything to covid, there's still not even a proposed method of action. The folks still pushing this line are just the worst of the worst, give it up already.

        Also the guy who kicked that whole thing off, Dr. Pierre Kory (along with prominent anti-vaxxer Steve Kirsch) when actually pressed to defend themselves collapse into misdirection and anecdote. Really we need to study how audience capture and conspiracies are able to make otherwise rational people compl

    • If it's good enough for the president it should be good enough for anyone.
    • Interesting, ivermectin might indeed be an answer: https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
      • I did and a section covering antivirals is speculative at best. Everything else is basically listing out a shitload of parasites ivermectin is good against which is exactly what it's meant for.

        Following all the controversy there was a shit ton of studies done on the potential antiviral properties. They were found to be basically useless except at concentrations so high you might as well have just used bleach.

        That's why you had the link to a speculative paper from 2017. Instead of anything more recen
  • I thought AI already had this problem solved?

  • Bacteria have to evolve fairly elaborate strategies around many of the antibiotics (AB). For example, a process that took a bacterium 2 steps may require 5 as a work-around to a given AB: a "long-cut". It seems to me a cocktail of multiple AB's would slow down the offensive work done by bacteria by forcing them to expand lots of energy to work around multiple AB's. It wouldn't just be one long-cut the bacterium has to take, but several: tax them from multiple angles like what red states accuse blue states o

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )
      I have read that that is done in some cases. One downside is that there are often important side effects when using even a single drug.

  • No surprise (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @10:42AM (#65743074)

    This has been predicted for a long, long time. Fixes are also known for a long, long time: Fix your damn broken health system that gives antibiotics for everything and stop using antibiotics for animals to improve yield.

    What, greed is more important? Well, then keep dying. More and more.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      What we do is irrelevant in the long term because antibiotic-resistant bugs will evolve in other countries which don't care. We might stop antibiotic-resistant bugs evolving here but the new ones will soon arrive on an airliner.

      This was always going to be a perpetual arms race and we're no longer competent enough to develop new arms in the race.

      • It would be odd (and potentially cruel or unethical in some ways) to export control antibiotics for reasons like that but it could be pursued.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Did I mention any specific country? But good of you to admit that _your_ country is doing this utterly stupid thing and you are apparently fine with that. Asshole.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by skam240 ( 789197 )

        Even if it only happens in the first world, less overuse of antibiotics equals less chance of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Every country that properly limits antibiotic use lowers the odds of a problem emerging so what we do very much makes a difference.

      • I think we are competent. It just isn't profitable. You don't need to keep taking them once the infection is gone. Unlike the GLP-1 thing, which is catnip for the drug companies. There was a story I saw maybe over a decade now, where the pharma's were closing down there antibiotic groups because profits were bad.
  • Okay, yes, fine: a lot of us are going to die of the black plague. But! Have you SEEN how big these antibiotic-fed chickens are?

  • Hardly Surprising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Going_Digital ( 1485615 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @11:07AM (#65743162)
    Countries like the USA, unnecessarily feeding cattle with antibiotics for profit.
    Adulterated medication being sold in corrupt countries with lower dose
    Overprescribing and ineffective water treatment, meaning waterways contain low dose antibiotics
    Patients not completing their medication

    It is no wonder that resistance is developing quickly

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by RobinH ( 124750 )
      Sorry, but the USA is nowhere near [visualcapitalist.com] the top when it comes to over-prescribing antibiotics. Iran tops the list, where "more than half of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions... lacked medical justification." Heck, I was on a vacation in Mexico a few years ago and my kid got an eye infection (we first noticed it when getting on the plane to go there). The doctor at the resort prescribed antibiotic eye drops, an oral antibiotic, *and* an immediate antibiotic injection. I admit that it cleared up pretty fast,
      • The USA was only mentioned in the context of cattle, as the practice is banned in Europe and many other countries. overprescribing is a global problem.

      • To be clear you just said "The USA is not the worst, look at Iran"? Is that how low the USA has fallen? That you proudly proclaim you're better than Iran? IRAN? Errr. sure... *condescending slow clap*.

        • Also Italy, Ireland, France, Poland, Malta, Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Montenegro...
          But really, all of those, the US, and the rest of Europe are right in a pretty narrow range of reasonable*.

          *in that any country is reasonable.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by RobinH ( 124750 )
          I'm not American, but I get tired of the "everything American is bad" mantra. We should be using evidence-based decision making, not our feelings.

    • Countries like the USA, unnecessarily feeding cattle with antibiotics for profit.

      And this cause all the cattle's gut bacteria to be resistant. I regret I do not have mod points left for your post.

  • At least we can develop more vaccines. Oh wait, the right told me those are evil.

  • The alarm bells have been ringing for awhile (Score:5, Informative)

    by Xyrx ( 109960 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @11:16AM (#65743190)

    My husband is involved in antibiotic resistance research in animals / livestock at UC Davis. For the past 2 years, he's been sounding the alarm bells on the massive overuse of antibiotics in livestock, which is primarily used to increase yield. The most powerful antibiotic available for livestock is now being commonly used. He says it's only a matter of time before that becomes completely ineffective, which is the last line of defense. After that, there may be mass disease spreading in livestock which could severely affect our food supply.

    • Hmmm, if money is involved, and the farm lobby, perhaps someone will listen.

    • Fortunately, we don't need to eat much meat to survive.

      • We don't need any meat, actually.

    • After that, there may be mass disease spreading in livestock which could severely affect our food supply.

      You will eat nothing and like it.

      Or, you know, starve.

    • I feel sorry for your husband. This has been discussed for more than 20 years now, likely longer, and nothing has changed other than doctors are more likely to emphasize taking the full course of antibiotics. Keep speaking, but money doesn't have ears.

  • Time for new sulfa drugs (Score:3)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @11:37AM (#65743246)
    Lots of reactions to deal with, but bacteria haven't seen them in quite a while.
    • Not sure what current research suggests, but back when I was in school the current papers were showing that resistance genes become fixed more than you'd expect even once the selective pressure is lifted, due to compensatory mutations with the affected metabolic systems that raise their fitness back up to wild type. So, they generally stay resistant over time and even when the genes break they're still there, so a selection filter encourages restoration of function. .

  • The Endochronic Properties of resublimated bacteria, who develop a resistance to an antibiotic 1.12 seconds before it is invented.

  • I thought we rejected them because they're 'woke' or something.

  • It would be interesting if there is anything to the claims of this book
    https://www.amazon.com/Herbal-... [amazon.com]

  • Perhaps more humane conditions for chickens, cattle, and pigs, than raising them in something not much different than the slave ships did for people? Then you wouldn't need to feed them antibiotics to keep them from dying...

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