Today’s topic is “ripped from the headlines” – specifically:
The Scary Rise of the Latest Superbug
This illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control depicts a three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated image of a group of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae bacteria. The artistic recreation was based upon scanning electron micrographic imagery. A potentially deadly “superbug” resistant to antibiotics infected seven patients, including two who died, and more than 100 others were exposed at a Southern California hospital through contaminated medical instruments, UCLA reported Wednesday. (AP Photo/Centers for Disease Control)
The country’s latest health-care scare centers around a growing problem that’s keeping public health officials around the globe awake at night: drug-resistant superbugs.
So my questions for you today – what comes next? Will we come up with new, better antibiotics? Curb the overuse of the ones we already have? What form might a new superbug take, and with what consequences for our globalized society? And what new transmission vectors might we see for these new bugs? Pull out your crystal balls, poeople!