excellent overview: Antibiotics prove powerless as super-germs spread

January 28, 2012

Antibiotics prove powerless as super-germs spread.

Antibiotics were once the wonder drug. Now, however, an increasing

number of highly resistant -- and deadly -- bacteria are spreading

around the world. The killer bugs often originate in factory farms,

where animals are treated whether they are sick or not.

The pathogens thrive in warm, moist environments. They feel comfortable

in people's armpits, in the genital area and in the nasal mucous

membranes. Their hunting grounds are in the locker rooms of schools and

universities, as well as in the communal showers of prisons and health

clubs.

The bacteria are transmitted via the skin, through towels, clothing or

direct body contact. All it takes is a small abrasion to provide them

with access to a victim's bloodstream. Festering pustules develop at the

infection site, at which point the pathogens are also capable of

corroding the lungs. If doctors wait too long, patients can die very

quickly.

This is precisely what happened to Ashton Bonds, a 17-year-old student

at Staunton River High School in Bedford County, in the US state of

Virginia. Ashton spent a week fighting for his life -- and lost. This is

probably what also happened to , a 12-year-old in New York,

who doctors sent home because they thought he was exhibiting allergy

symptoms. He died that same night.

The same thing almost happened at a high school in the town of Belen,

New Mexico. Less than two weeks ago, a cheerleader at the school was

hospitalized after complaining about an abscess. Twelve other female

students had been afflicted with suspicious rashes. All the students

tested positive for a bacterium that the US media has dubbed the

" superbug. " ....

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