drug-resistant bacteria

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Aged Care Facilities Nurturing Superbugs [Australia]

John Elder | The Age Victoria | October 5, 2014

Nursing home residents appear to be significant carriers of superbug infections into hospitals, potentially putting other patients at risk.  This is the latest finding in a series of Monash University studies that have investigated management of infection in Melbourne's aged care facilities, and the over-prescription of antibiotics to residents...

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Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Could Send Britain 'Back To The Dark Ages'

Sarah Ann Harris | Express | July 2, 2014

BRITAIN is facing the real prospect of heading “back to the dark ages” because of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics...

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Does Breast Milk Hold the Secret to Wiping Out Superbugs?

Matt Broomfield | Independent | January 23, 2016

A protein found in human breast milk could be used to destroy drug-resistant superbugs, according to research. The research, carried out by the National Physical Laboratory and University College London, shows that lactoferrin, a component of a protein which naturally occurs in breast milk, destroys bacteria, fungi and viruses as soon as it touches them...

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Drug Resistance Grows Menacingly

Nana Taona Kuo | Bangkok Post | December 21, 2015

Every five minutes a child in Southeast Asia dies from an infection caused by drug-resistant bacteria -- a situation that is likely to get worse. Anti-microbial resistance, which happens when micro-organisms become less susceptible to antibiotics, is making diseases more difficult to contain and harder to cure. Diseases we no longer fear, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, are re-emerging as major killers, as the tools we use to fight them become less effective.

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Drug-resistant ‘Nightmare Bacteria’ Show Worrisome Ability to Diversify and Spread

Press Release | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health | January 16, 2017

A family of highly drug-resistant and potentially deadly bacteria may be spreading more widely—and more stealthily—than previously thought, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Researchers examined carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) causing disease in four U.S. hospitals. They found a wide variety of CRE species. They also found a wide variety of genetic traits enabling CRE to resist antibiotics, and found that these traits are transferring easily among various CRE species..

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L.A. County Patient Was Infected with Drug-Resistant E. coli

Soumya Karlamangla | Los Angeles Times | January 31, 2017

Scientists were alarmed last year when they found that a woman in Pennsylvania had been infected with bacteria that was resistant to colistin, an antibiotic that is considered the last line of defense against particularly nasty illnesses. It was a scary reminder that bacteria are increasingly able to survive antibiotics, making some infections extremely difficult or even impossible to treat. Now California is on a list of six states where patients have been infected with bacteria that contains a gene known as mcr-1, which makes it resistant to colistin...

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Predicting Superbugs' Countermoves To New Drugs

Press Release | Duke University | January 2, 2015

Duke University researchers used software they developed to predict a constantly-evolving infectious bacterium's countermoves to one of these new drugs ahead of time, before the drug is even tested on patients. In a study appearing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team used their program to identify the genetic changes that will allow methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, to develop resistance to a class of new experimental drugs that show promise against the deadly bug.

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Scientists Have Figured Out Why Drug-Resistant 'Superbugs' Are So Hard to Kill

David Nield | Science Alert | February 26, 2016

You may have already heard about the growing problem caused by antibiotic resistance - the spread of superbugs that have evolved to become resistant to the antibiotics we usually attack them with. It's an issue that could have very serious implications for global health and disease if it isn't tackled urgently, and now researchers have made an important step in finding a solution. A new study has discovered how these drug-resistant bacterial cells maintain a defensive barrier, and if further research can find a way to bring down these walls - rather than targeting the bacteria directly - the bacteria could be prevented from developing drug resistance in the first place...

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Superbugs Spread Across U.S.

Brian Hughes | Washington Examiner | October 6, 2014

As Americans worry about Ebola, the swiftly spreading virus that has traveled from West Africa to Texas, a more silent killer poses a greater danger...Drug-resistant bacteria killed 23,000 people in America last year and caused 2 million illnesses...

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UEA Scientists Pave Way for New Generation of Superbug Drugs

Press Release | University of East Anglia | February 22, 2016

New research published today in the journal Nature reveals the mechanism by which drug-resistant bacterial cells maintain a defensive barrier. The findings pave the way for a new wave of drugs that kill superbugs by bringing down their defensive walls rather than attacking the bacteria itself. It means that in future, bacteria may not develop drug-resistance at all. Unravelling this mechanism could also help scientists understand more about human cell dysfunctions linked to disorders such as diabetes, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases...

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