Thread: 'Invincible' bacteria threatens global epidemic: study

What You Need to Know About Bacterial Resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics isn’t a new phenomenon—or a concern of scientists globally—but a new report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal signals an end of the antibiotic era, and modern medicine as we know it may come much sooner than anyone anticipated.

The report details how the antibiotic Colistin, often used as a last resort, has been deemed ineffective to fight certain bacteria found in humans and animals. Resistance showed in a fifth of animals tested, 15 percent of raw meat samples tested, and was found in 16 human patients by the researchers. The resistance has spread through a range of different bacterial species, and an author of the study told the BBC, “All the key players are now in place to make the post-antibiotic world a reality.”

If the resistance of these bacteria spreads around the world, which is almost inevitable, the implications could reverse decades of medical progress.

Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which depend on antibiotics to fight off infections, would be too dangerous to use.

The success rates of life-saving transplant operations would disintegrate, routine surgical operations would be too dangerous to carry out, and child birth deaths would skyrocket.

Two million Americans are infected with bacteria resistant to antibiotics, resulting in 23,000 deaths annually. Those numbers are projected to increase to 317,000 by 2050.

Antibiotic resistance has already been a major concern in the medicine, but these new findings amplify the gravity of a potential public health crisis. According to the Center for Disease Control, two million Americans are infected with bacteria resistant to antibiotics, resulting in 23,000 deaths annually. By 2050, those numbers are projected to increase to 317,000 deaths in North America, and nearly ten million annually worldwide.

Doctors attribute the fast evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to farmers overusing antibiotics for their livestock. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration have a plan to phase out certain antibiotic use in food production, but it remains voluntary for the industry. The plan only targets antibiotics humans use as well, which would contribute to overall antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotics are intended to kill all bacteria targeted, but the bacteria which survive develop a resistance to the medicine and are able to pass the trait on through reproduction. Because most bacteria reproduces quickly, the evolution happens fast. This is leading to what are being deemed “superbugs,” or infectious diseases completely resistant to antibiotic medicines which will leave people who contract treatable infections such as E.coli, MRSA, or gonorrhea unresponsive to treatments.

There are also severe economic implications associated with a pandemic of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Currently, the annual cost to the US healthcare system due to antibiotic-resistant infections in is estimated between $21 billion and $34 billion. Those estimates increase in conjunction with food shortages due to untreatable livestock infections, and restrictions on migration to where outbreaks occur.

A misinformed public is contributing to the crisis. A recent study conducted by the Wellcome Trust in London found most people believe humans develop resistance, not the bacteria. The study also found many insist on taking antibiotics when not needed, and stop taking them before their dosage is complete. If you take an antibiotics when not needed, it won’t help you get better, but it will contribute to any bacteria in your system developing a resistance to that antibiotic. The more often antibiotics are used, the less useful they become, and once a bacteria develops a resistance it can take decades for the antibiotic to become useful again.

Resistance wouldn’t be a problem if new drugs could keep up with the demand, but creating antibiotics is becoming increasingly difficult. There hasn’t been a new class of antibiotics discovered since the 1980s, and there isn’t much incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop new strains, as drug taken habitually are much more profitable than an antibiotic taken once for a few days.

Some solutions being rendered by medical experts are improving diagnostic tests, so antibiotics are prescribed more sparingly and improving farming practices. There are also promising research avenues. Although antibiotics are expensive to make, only one percent of chemicals from the bacteria in the world have been examined to make them. Phage therapy could also yield some solutions. The therapy uses viruses, bacteriophages, to target and kill bacteria, has shown promise in Russian labs, but has yet to pass safety rules in the west.

The End of the Antibiotic Era: What You Need to Know About Resistance | Observer

Originally Posted by Hans Mann

What You Need to Know About Bacterial Resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics isn’t a new phenomenon—or a concern of scientists globally—but a new report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal signals an end of the antibiotic era, and modern medicine as we know it may come much sooner than anyone anticipated.

The report details how the antibiotic Colistin, often used as a last resort, has been deemed ineffective to fight certain bacteria found in humans and animals. Resistance showed in a fifth of animals tested, 15 percent of raw meat samples tested, and was found in 16 human patients by the researchers. The resistance has spread through a range of different bacterial species, and an author of the study told the BBC, “All the key players are now in place to make the post-antibiotic world a reality.”

If the resistance of these bacteria spreads around the world, which is almost inevitable, the implications could reverse decades of medical progress.

Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which depend on antibiotics to fight off infections, would be too dangerous to use.

The success rates of life-saving transplant operations would disintegrate, routine surgical operations would be too dangerous to carry out, and child birth deaths would skyrocket.

Two million Americans are infected with bacteria resistant to antibiotics, resulting in 23,000 deaths annually. Those numbers are projected to increase to 317,000 by 2050.

Antibiotic resistance has already been a major concern in the medicine, but these new findings amplify the gravity of a potential public health crisis. According to the Center for Disease Control, two million Americans are infected with bacteria resistant to antibiotics, resulting in 23,000 deaths annually. By 2050, those numbers are projected to increase to 317,000 deaths in North America, and nearly ten million annually worldwide.

Doctors attribute the fast evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to farmers overusing antibiotics for their livestock. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration have a plan to phase out certain antibiotic use in food production, but it remains voluntary for the industry. The plan only targets antibiotics humans use as well, which would contribute to overall antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotics are intended to kill all bacteria targeted, but the bacteria which survive develop a resistance to the medicine and are able to pass the trait on through reproduction. Because most bacteria reproduces quickly, the evolution happens fast. This is leading to what are being deemed “superbugs,” or infectious diseases completely resistant to antibiotic medicines which will leave people who contract treatable infections such as E.coli, MRSA, or gonorrhea unresponsive to treatments.

There are also severe economic implications associated with a pandemic of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Currently, the annual cost to the US healthcare system due to antibiotic-resistant infections in is estimated between $21 billion and $34 billion. Those estimates increase in conjunction with food shortages due to untreatable livestock infections, and restrictions on migration to where outbreaks occur.

A misinformed public is contributing to the crisis. A recent study conducted by the Wellcome Trust in London found most people believe humans develop resistance, not the bacteria. The study also found many insist on taking antibiotics when not needed, and stop taking them before their dosage is complete. If you take an antibiotics when not needed, it won’t help you get better, but it will contribute to any bacteria in your system developing a resistance to that antibiotic. The more often antibiotics are used, the less useful they become, and once a bacteria develops a resistance it can take decades for the antibiotic to become useful again.

Resistance wouldn’t be a problem if new drugs could keep up with the demand, but creating antibiotics is becoming increasingly difficult. There hasn’t been a new class of antibiotics discovered since the 1980s, and there isn’t much incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop new strains, as drug taken habitually are much more profitable than an antibiotic taken once for a few days.

Some solutions being rendered by medical experts are improving diagnostic tests, so antibiotics are prescribed more sparingly and improving farming practices. There are also promising research avenues. Although antibiotics are expensive to make, only one percent of chemicals from the bacteria in the world have been examined to make them. Phage therapy could also yield some solutions. The therapy uses viruses, bacteriophages, to target and kill bacteria, has shown promise in Russian labs, but has yet to pass safety rules in the west.

The End of the Antibiotic Era: What You Need to Know About Resistance | Observer

Interesting article.
Imagine such naturally occurring cycles are the dread of the profit-only pharmaceutical/medical allopathic mafias, whom largely haven't a clue regarding health - mind, body, spirit.

A gene that makes bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics has been found in Denmark, a new study has shown, after first being identified by researchers in China.

Scientists had warned on November 19 of a gene -- found in southern China -- called MCR-1 that makes bacteria resistant to a class of antibiotics, known as polymyxins, used to fight superbugs.

"Bacteria with the same resistance gene have now also been found in Denmark," the Technical University of Denmark said in a statement on the results of a study published late last week.

Using a Danish database of bacterial DNA samples, the researchers found the gene in a patient who suffered from a blood infection in 2015, and in five samples of imported poultry from between 2012 and 2014.

The food had been imported "via Germany but if that is the origin we don't know yet", Professor Frank Moller Aarestrup, a microbiologist at the university, told AFP on Tuesday.

The find was "very concerning", said Robert Forest of Statens Serum Insitut, a Ministry of Health institute tasked with surveying and controlling infectious diseases.

"But because the gene has only been found in one patient and the oldest finds in food date back to 2012, it's not a matter of an urgently critical situation," he said in a statement.

In Denmark, the gene has so far only been found in bacteria that can be treated with other types of antibiotics.

Scientists warned in November that the new superbugs could erase nearly a century of antibiotic protection against killer diseases borne by common germs such as E. coli.

The gene -- detected in common but deadly bacteria such as E. coli and K. pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia and blood disease -- effectively makes these bacteria invincible.

"These are extremely worrying results," said Jian-Hua Liu, a professor at Southern Agricultural University in Guangzhou.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/gene-last-...8.html#EGvcPDO

Nature's answer to overpopulation and global warming; no joke, it's as simple as that.

God's wrath, sort of, eh?

U.S. sees first case of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics


The mcr-1 plasmid-borne colistin resistance gene has been found primarily in Escherichia coli, pictured. REUTERS/Courtesy CDC

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported the first case in the country of a patient with an infection resistant to all known antibiotics, and expressed grave concern that the superbug could pose serious danger for routine infections if it spreads.

"We risk being in a post-antibiotic world," said Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to the urinary tract infection of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who had not traveled within the prior five months.

Frieden, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., said the infection was not controlled even by colistin, an antibiotic that is reserved for use against "nightmare bacteria."

The infection was reported Thursday in a study appearing in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. It said the superbug itself had first been infected with a tiny piece of DNA called a plasmid, which passed along a gene called mcr-1 that confers resistance to colistin.

"(This) heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria," said the study, which was conducted by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mcr-1 in the USA."

The study said continued surveillance to determine the true frequency of the gene in the United States is critical.

"It is dangerous and we would assume it can be spread quickly, even in a hospital environment if it is not well contained," said Dr. Gail Cassell, a microbiologist and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

But she said the potential speed of its spread will not be known until more is learned about how the Pennsylvania patient was infected, and how present the colistin-resistant superbug is in the United States and globally.

The colistin-resistant gene was found last year in people and pigs in China. That discovery followed a different superbug gene that emerged in India in 2010.

In the meantime, Cassell said people can best protect themselves from the superbug and from other bacteria resistant to antibiotics by thoroughly washing their hands, washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly and preparing foods appropriately.

She said experts have warned since the 1990s that especially bad superbugs could be on the horizon, but few drugmakers have attempted to develop drugs against them.

"The medicine cabinet is threadbare because not enough has been done."

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Additional reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Bernard Orr)

U.S. sees first case of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics | Reuters

A very good friend of mine died last last year from tuberculosis. He was only 57, non smoker, light drinker, fit, health concious fellow. I was a bit shocked.
He was in Florida at the time, once the doctors got ahold of him, that was the end of the story.

It said the superbug itself had first been infected with a tiny piece of DNA called a plasmid, which passed along a gene called mcr-1 that confers resistance to colistin.

Do I read this correctly that we, humans, started this by if you like "Introducing rabbits to Australia"

Colistin is actually 50 years old and quite toxic to our kidneys.

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/ant.../colistin.aspx

Hang on a tic....

No, this isn’t the start of the antibiotic apocalypse, just bad reporting

New drug resistant infection is cause for measured concern, but let’s get the facts straight.




Over the next day or so, you may see headlines and reports about a “nightmare” “superbug” that has been detected for the first time in the US.
So far, the Washington Post reports:
“The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.”
And the article starts with: “For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort.”
CNN had a similarly alarming, but distinct headline:
“'Nightmare' drug-resistant bacteria CRE found in U.S. woman”
And NBC News ran:
“'Nightmare Bacteria' Superbug Found for First Time in U.S”
There are some truths and cause for concern here, but a lot of errors and hype as well. Let’s sort it out.
Here’s what really happened

Researchers reported Thursday that a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman was found to be infected with an E. coli strain that’s resistant to the last resort antibiotic colistin. Upon DNA analysis, researchers determined that the E. coli is resistant to colistin because it carries a colistin resistance gene called mcr-1 on a circular piece of DNA called a plasmid. The study appears in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
As Ars previously reported, mcr-1 was first discovered in bacteria late last year in China. The discovery of the gene quickly raised concern because of its placement on a plasmid, which bacteria can easily share with their neighbors. Colistin resistance had been reported before in other bacteria—including in bacteria found in the US—but their colistin resistance genes resided on bacterial chromosomes, which aren’t shareable. Experts feared that the new plasmid-based colistin resistance would easily spread among bacteria, potentially to ones that are already resistant to other last resort antibiotics.
Since the initial report, mcr-1-toting bacteria have been discovered on every continent. And the infected PA woman, who was suffering from a urinary tract infection, had not traveled in the last five months.
But this may or may not be concerning. It’s important to note that we don’t know exactly how long mcr-1 has been hanging around in bacteria or where it first came from. It may have spread around the globe in months or been lying low and spreading quietly for years. Either way, it was inevitable and expected that mcr-1 carrying bacteria would pop up in the US. (Although, in weeks of testing other bacteria from the Pennsylvania clinic where the patient was identified, no other mcr-1 carrying bacteria have been found.)
While concerns still stand, the alarmist headlines are unnecessary—and so are the errors.
Here’s what you can ignore

First, the “first” bit. The first line of the Post’s article states: “For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort.”
Nope—this isn’t even close to true. This is absolutely not the first time a person in the US has been found with a bacteria resistant to a last resort antibiotic. There are several last resort antibiotics and many bacteria over the years have shown up with resistance to them—including colistin.
For instance, way back in 1991, a hospital in Brooklyn suffered an outbreak of bacteria resistant to vancomycin, a last resort antibiotic. In 2009, several Detroit medical centers suffered an outbreak of bacteria that were resistant to both colistin and carbapenem—another last resort antibiotic. And not even the National Institutes of Health has been immune to bacteria resistant to last resort antibiotics. In 2011, an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant bacteria at the NIH’s clinic sickened 18, killing 11.
The only real first in this case is that it’s the first time mcr-1-based colistin resistance has shown up in a US patient.
While, again, this isn’t exactly good news, it’s not catastrophic. There are several last resort antibiotics and doctors can try different combinations and strengths of prescriptions before an infection may be deemed untreatable.
Next is the confusing CRE connection

The CNN headline, which has now been updated, initially incorrectly identified the colistin resistant bacteria as a CRE. Other articles have brought this term up as well.
CRE stands for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. The Enterobacteriaceae are a big family of bacteria that include some harmless ones and some notable pathogenic ones, including Salmonella, E.coli, Klebsiella, and Shigella.
Carbapenem resistance is a big concern because it has been rising steadily in recent years and CRE infections can lead to death 50 percent of the time. For this reason, CRE infections have been dubbed by some as “nightmare” cases.
However, the bacteria reported today is not a CRE. While it is an E. coli strain, so it’s in the Enterobacteriaceae family, and it has a whopping 15 types of antibiotic resistance genes—genes for carbapenem resistance were not among them. There were several other antibiotics that the strain was still sensitive to as well.
Here's the quick take-away

Thursday’s report of a mcr-1-based colistin resistant bacterial infection in a US patient is concerning, but unsurprising. The plasmid based resistant gene threatens to spread to other bacteria, potentially to ones that are already resistant to last resort drugs, such as CRE. However, the trajectory of mcr-1's emergence and its contribution to drug resistant infection trends is not yet clear. For now, the case serves mostly to highlight the ongoing crisis of rising antibiotic resistance and furthers the need for better stewardship of old antibiotics and development of new ones.




http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/...pocalypse-yet/

Originally Posted by Hans Mann

U.S. sees first case of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics


The mcr-1 plasmid-borne colistin resistance gene has been found primarily in Escherichia coli, pictured. REUTERS/Courtesy CDC

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported the first case in the country of a patient with an infection resistant to all known antibiotics, and expressed grave concern that the superbug could pose serious danger for routine infections if it spreads.

"We risk being in a post-antibiotic world," said Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to the urinary tract infection of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who had not traveled within the prior five months.

Frieden, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., said the infection was not controlled even by colistin, an antibiotic that is reserved for use against "nightmare bacteria."

The infection was reported Thursday in a study appearing in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. It said the superbug itself had first been infected with a tiny piece of DNA called a plasmid, which passed along a gene called mcr-1 that confers resistance to colistin.

"(This) heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria," said the study, which was conducted by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mcr-1 in the USA."

The study said continued surveillance to determine the true frequency of the gene in the United States is critical.

"It is dangerous and we would assume it can be spread quickly, even in a hospital environment if it is not well contained," said Dr. Gail Cassell, a microbiologist and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

But she said the potential speed of its spread will not be known until more is learned about how the Pennsylvania patient was infected, and how present the colistin-resistant superbug is in the United States and globally.

The colistin-resistant gene was found last year in people and pigs in China. That discovery followed a different superbug gene that emerged in India in 2010.

In the meantime, Cassell said people can best protect themselves from the superbug and from other bacteria resistant to antibiotics by thoroughly washing their hands, washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly and preparing foods appropriately.

She said experts have warned since the 1990s that especially bad superbugs could be on the horizon, but few drugmakers have attempted to develop drugs against them.

"The medicine cabinet is threadbare because not enough has been done."

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Additional reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Bernard Orr)

U.S. sees first case of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics | Reuters

So what happened to the patient?

G7 told to act on antibiotics as dreaded superbug hits U.S.

Britain told the G7 industrial powers on Friday to do more to fight killer superbugs as the United States reported the first case in the country of a patient with bacteria resistant to a last-resort antibiotic.

U.S. scientists said the infection in a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman "heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria" because it could not be controlled even by colistin, an antibiotic reserved for "nightmare" bugs.

In Japan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said leading countries needed to tackle resistance by reducing the use of antibiotics and rewarding drug companies for developing new medicines.

"In too many cases antibiotics have stopped working. That means people are dying of simple infections or conditions like TB (tuberculosis), tetanus, sepsis, infections that should not mean a death sentence," he told a news conference at a summit in Japan.

"If we do nothing about this there will be a cumulative hit to the world economy of $100 trillion and it is potentially the end of modern medicine as we know it."

A review commissioned by the British government and published last week said a reward of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion should be paid for any successful new antimicrobial medicine brought to market.

If the problem is not brought under control, antimicrobial resistance could kill an extra 10 million people a year by 2050, the review warned.

The U.S. case is a further wake-up call for the world, although it is not the first time that colistin resistance has appeared.

Medics around were alarmed last year by the discovery in China of a new gene that makes bacteria highly resistant to the medicine. Since then, the deadly strain has also been detected in Europe and Canada.

The development of colistin resistance is linked to the drug's widespread use in livestock and the European Medicines Agency on Thursday called for a 65 percent cut in the amount of the medicine used in farming.

"The more we look at drug resistance, the more concerned we are," Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters in Washington.

"The medicine cabinet is empty for some patients. It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently."

The problem is aggravated by drugmakers' reluctance to invest in developing new antibiotics, preferring to focus on more profitable disease areas, although recently there has been some increase in investment, prompted by the superbug threat.

In January, 83 companies, including Pfizer, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline, signed a declaration urging governments to support work on new antibiotics.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Louise Ireland)

G7 told to act on antibiotics as dreaded superbug hits U.S. | Reuters

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

It said the superbug itself had first been infected with a tiny piece of DNA called a plasmid, which passed along a gene called mcr-1 that confers resistance to colistin.

Do I read this correctly that we, humans, started this by if you like "Introducing rabbits to Australia"

Bacteria have a means to transfer genetic material between each other, even different strains, enabling them to spread new genetic developments faster. I think this refers to that ability.

My advice:


STAY OUT OF HOSPITALS !

New incentives needed to develop antibiotics to fight superbugs

Drugmakers are renewing efforts to develop medicines to fight emerging antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but creating new classes of drugs on the scale needed is unlikely to happen without new financial incentives to make the effort worth the investment, companies and industry experts said.

American military researchers on Thursday announced the first U.S. case of a patient with an infection found to be resistant to the antibiotic colistin, the drug often held in reserve for when all else fails.

That put a spotlight on the urgent need for new medicines that can combat what health officials have called "nightmare bacteria."

Drugmakers on Friday acknowledged that in the absence of a new way of compensating them, it simply does not make economic sense to pour serious resources into work on new antibiotics.

"The return on investment based on the current commercial model is not really commensurate with the amount of effort you have to put into it," said David Payne, who heads GlaxoSmithKline PLC's (GSK.L) antibiotics drug group.

Other pharmaceutical companies expressed a similar sentiment.

In January, some 80 drugmakers and diagnostics companies, including Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Merck & Co (MRK.N), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and Glaxo, signed a declaration calling for cooperation among governments and companies to create incentives to revitalize research and development of new antibiotics.

It proposed a new business model in which profit would not be linked to higher sales. For example, governments and health organizations could offer lump-sum rewards for development of a successful new antibiotic. A British government panel suggested this month that drug companies be offered up to $1.5 billion for successful development of a new antibiotic.

In the United States alone, antibiotic-resistant bacteria causes 2 million serious infections and 23,000 deaths annually, according to U.S. health officials.

Unrestrained overuse of current antibiotics by doctors and hospitals, often when they are not needed, and widespread antibiotic use in food livestock have contributed to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

But in recent years, major drugmakers have poured most of their research dollars into highly profitable medicines to fight cancer, rare diseases and hepatitis C. These drugs not only command high prices, they also are typically used far longer than antibiotics.

And the companies, which have come under intense criticism in recent months for continually raising prices on popular drugs, say it costs about as much to develop a new antibiotic as it does to bring to market new cancer drugs that can command more than $100,000 a year per patient.

"Drug companies can't make an economic case for investing in superbug drugs," said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

Gordon said governments and foundations need to get more involved in research and funding to spearhead efforts to combat the problem.

To critics who argue that U.S. companies have enormous cash reserves that could be used to address a public health crisis, drugmakers say they have a fiduciary duty to shareholders to maximize profits.

ON THE R&D FRONT LINES

One reason companies are calling for alternative compensation is that aggressive sales and use of new antibiotics could help create ever more dangerous bacteria that develop resistance to the new medicines.

Glaxo and Merck are among the large.....

New incentives needed to develop antibiotics to fight superbugs | Reuters

My 2nd advice:

Stop the Brazil Olympics !

I'd hazard a guess that there will be a fair bit of cross-infection of some kind going on there.