Category Archives: Antibiotics

Thoughts On A Completely Drug Resistant Klebsiella

Posted on January 17, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Since I’ve been asked about this, I’ll have some comments in a bit, but first, the CDC report (boldface mine): On August 25, 2016, the Washoe County Health District in Reno, Nevada, was notified of a patient at an acute … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics | 1 Comment

A Failure Of Data Transmission: The CRE Edition

Posted on December 9, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

There’s a very interesting article that came out recently describing the first public report of carbapenem resistance in E. coli from the U.S. food supply. Maryn McKenna provides a good overview: Bacteria containing a gene that confers resistance to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, Data Stuff, Genomics | 1 Comment

Man’s–And Clostridium difficile’s–Best Friend

Posted on November 1, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

This is disturbing (boldface mine; added line breaks for clarity): Nosocomial acquisition of Clostridium difficile is well documented, yet recent studies have highlighted the importance of community acquired infections and identified community associated reservoirs for this pathogen. Multiple studies have … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, Public Health | 2 Comments

MCR-1 Confers Resistance To Lysozyme, Part Of Our Immune System

Posted on October 27, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

If you don’t know what pleiotropy means, you had better learn the word: when one mutational change confers multiple phenotypic effects. When it comes to antibiotic resistance, this is a bad thing–for us, anyway. Which brings us to mcr-1, the … Continue reading →

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It Sucks To Be This Patient: The Seven CPO Edition

Posted on September 14, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

It really does for this New Zealand (‘NZ’) patient (boldface mine): Here, we report the isolation of seven distinct CPO [carbapenemase producing organisms–resistant to the last line beta-lactam antibiotics], together with an ESBL-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus mirabilis with an … Continue reading →

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Bacterial Whole Genome Sequencing And The Clinic: The Future Is Almost Here

Posted on August 30, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

I heard this talk almost a year ago*, so I’m glad this paper is finally out (I’ll translate into English below; boldface mine): The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria is a serious global challenge. Here, we studied prospectively whether … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Genomics, KPC, MRSA, NDM-1, Public Health | 1 Comment

Good News On The Antibiotic Development Front?

Posted on May 27, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

A while ago, I mentioned a serious problem in the attempt to combat drug resistance: …I think the greatest challenge is medicinal chemistry. By way of prelude, in days of yore, before the FDA approved virtually everything it was sent, … Continue reading →

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Five Percent of D.C.’s Enterobacterial Isolates Are CRE?

Posted on May 4, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve discussed before how difficult it is to measure the frequency of CRE (carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae–E. coli and relatives that are usually resistant to all treatment, with the possible exception of colistin). This is, in part, due to a ‘denominator problem’: … Continue reading →

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Do Drug Companies Need Financial Incentives For Antibiotic Development?

Posted on April 1, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

One of the commonly stated problems that limits the development of new antibiotics is that the economic incentives are all wrong. A company has to spend a lot of money developing a drug that we then have an incentive not … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics | 3 Comments

Data Reporting Doubts About The Antibiotic Resistance Atlas

Posted on March 7, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Last week, I provided some links to the CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Patient Safety Atlas (there’s an interactive version here). First, the CDC should be given kudos for putting this resource together. This isn’t a criticism of their effort. But the … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, Public Health | 1 Comment