People are dying from "superbugs" because our antibiotic arsenal has run dry, leaving the world without sufficient weapons to fight ever-changing bacteria, warn infectious disease researchers at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
In a Jan. 29 perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine, Barbara E. Murray, MD, and Cesar Arias, MD, PhD, evaluate the past, present and future response to preventing and treating "super bugs."
A "superbug" is an organism that is resistant to antibiotics. It can evade antibiotics by destroying the medication by producing an enzyme that devours the drug; creating a barrier to the drug; pumping out any antibiotic that reaches the bacterial cell; and modifying the target of the antibiotic so the drug can't bind to it.
"Most of the public has heard of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) because it produces the most cases each year. However, they have not heard of other super bugs that can be far worse," said Murray, co-author and director of Division of Infectious Diseases at the UT Medical School. "The Gram-negative bacteria are the most antibiotic-resistant with fewer treatment options in life-threatening diseases, such as certain forms of pneumonia, bloodstream infections, gastroenteritis and even meningitis." Gram-negative bacteria can release toxins created by their cell walls into the bloodstream, where it is harder to treat them.
According to a 2004 report, "Bad Bugs, No Drugs," by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), none of the 89 new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were antibiotics.