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Medicine Biotech

Vaccines Can Help Fight the Rise of Drug-Resistant Microbes (harvard.edu) 103

An anonymous reader quotes the Harvard School of Public Health: Drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea, salmonella, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and many other disease-causing agents are flourishing around the world, and the consequences are disastrous -- at least 700,000 people die globally as a result of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) annually, according to a 2016 review on antimicrobial resistance commissioned by former UK Prime Minister David Cameron. It's a perilous situation, but several new studies from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health indicate that an important tool in the fight against AMR already exists: vaccines.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently devoted a special feature section to examine the role vaccines can play in stemming the tide of antimicrobial resistance. In general terms, vaccinations can help lessen the burden in two ways: First, they can protect against the direct transmission of drug-resistant infections. Second, they can lessen the chances of someone getting sick, which in turn reduces the likelihood that he or she will be prescribed antibiotics or other medications. The fewer medications someone takes, the less likely it is that microbes will evolve resistance to the drugs.

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Vaccines Can Help Fight the Rise of Drug-Resistant Microbes

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  • by js290 ( 697670 ) on Sunday March 17, 2019 @09:56PM (#58290520)
    Didn't slashdot also just post this:

    Bacteria Discovered In Irish Soil Kills Four Drug-Resistant Superbugs https://t.co/KZGurzCSqf [t.co]

    — Slashdot (@slashdot) March 18, 2019 [twitter.com]

    Better start rebuilding our soil...

    "The use of cattle and cover crops in agriculture operations provide the link to completing the nutrient cycle in the soil."https://t.co/8XwmQjt0c9 [t.co]

    — Savory Institute (@SavoryInstitute) February 21, 2019 [twitter.com]

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 17, 2019 @10:02PM (#58290540)

    There has been what some might consider an exhaustive effort to develop numerous bacterial vaccines for cows to mitigate episodes of bovine mastitis and the only one that has been moderately successful is the J-5 E. coli vaccine. There are 4 to 5 other species of bacteria that can cause bovine mastitis and vaccines against those other species haven't been successful in the last 20 years.

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      I wonder how much of that is just because antibiotics are more convenient. There wasn't much progress on an ebola vaccine either, until a whole bunch of people got it.

      • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        I wonder how much of that is just because antibiotics are more convenient. There wasn't much progress on an ebola vaccine either, until a whole bunch of people got it.

        Back when I was a kid, they taught us that vaccines against bacteria were impossible. It isn't a convenience thing; bacterial vaccines are a lot harder to develop. You can't just use a weakened or inactivated bacteria like you can for viruses, because the immune system won't ever react to it at all without the presence of some other threat.

        • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          I'm perhaps a bit younger, since I received several actual anti-bacterial vaccines as a child. You can actually make vaccines using either attenuated live (e.g. tuberculosis, typhoid) or killed (older typhoid, pertussis) bacteria. As you mention, you can also make vaccines to the toxins, although that might be less acceptable for livestock due to the risk of the bacteria being transmitted to a person who isn't vaccinated.

          It does seem to be more difficult to create fully effective vaccines for bacteria, part

          • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            I'm perhaps a bit younger, since I received several actual anti-bacterial vaccines as a child. You can actually make vaccines using either attenuated live (e.g. tuberculosis, typhoid) or killed (older typhoid, pertussis) bacteria. As you mention, you can also make vaccines to the toxins, although that might be less acceptable for livestock due to the risk of the bacteria being transmitted to a person who isn't vaccinated.

            Oh, yeah. I guess that's true, I did get the DPT vaccination. I guess I'm remembering

            • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

              I expect that such a ban, perhaps also requiring a certified vet to prescribe antibiotics, would spur vaccine research. It might actually not be possible, but there's not much motivation when antibiotics for livestock costs pennies.

  • by dknj ( 441802 )

    I had to wait 90 seconds for slashdot to load dozens of advertising trackers [imgur.com].

    I guess this marks my departure from Slashdot. This is a sign of what will become the world wide web for the rest of our future. We had a chance to make a difference and the same dichotomies of change that prevented TV from being a learning medium will prevent the internet from reaching it's true intent. Or in less savage terms, the golden era of the internet has already passed and like traveling before 9/11, no one will remembe

  • by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Monday March 18, 2019 @12:16AM (#58290852) Journal
    Nearly all microbes adapt to antibiotics. The reason is that after enough usage 1 of them will develop a resistance to the antibiotic. Then the resistance is normally passed around to others, typically via plasmid. So, just for fun, assume that it takes on average 1T instances of being exposed prior to resistance. If you have stimulated the body to fight the AMR, then we do not have to use antibiotic except for extreme cases.

    This is why at some point, we really need to REQUIRE vaccines for all. At the least, require that unvaccinated be removed from ALL schools except for home schooling, and if they catch a disease, they have to pay for everything.
    • Or we could just stop putting antibiotics into everything everywhere creating the resistance.

      microbes don't just adapt, they also fight each other for space and when you wipe out one colony type you also reduce the threat against those of a different type. the microbiome in the gut is a great example of things like this. Even the once thought to be vestigial appendix has a use discovered for it now as a safe-house for beneficial bacteria.

      creating a vaccine for something serious like measles is great, crea

      • creating a vaccine for every little illiness is not the same as heavy use of antibiotics. I fully agree with you about the use of antibiotics. In America, the docs are trying to protect themselves from lawyers/lawsuits. So, I know of some that have given antibiotics for a virus just to shut up a parent. Sadly, that is causing more issues. Add in China's farmers heavy use of cheap antibiotic, and between both nations, we are having some horrible effects on our kid's future.
    • Right after we re-criminalize sodomy ... careful about praying for tyranny.

      • yes, requiring things like proper electricity/water in our homes is a HORRIBLE thing.
        O requiring wearing seat belts and having air bags. Horrible.
        OR, requiring that ppl who are put under quarantine because they have any number of highly infectious diseases to remain in their homes, again, is a horrible thing.

        I am guessing that you are not old enough to have witnessed any of these diseases. The last case of small pox in America was before I was born in 59.
        However, I have known ppl with Polio. Likewis
        • By forcing sodomy underground you severely restrict the promiscuity of men who have sex with men. They are on average carriers of highly infectious diseases in combination with their lifestyle.

          So as I said, be careful about praying for tyranny ... it won't always hit who you personally want.

    • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      Nearly all microbes adapt to antibiotics. The reason is that after enough usage 1 of them will develop a resistance to the antibiotic. Then the resistance is normally passed around to others, typically via plasmid. So, just for fun, assume that it takes on average 1T instances of being exposed prior to resistance. If you have stimulated the body to fight the AMR, then we do not have to use antibiotic except for extreme cases.

      Well, maybe. Or you may have stimulated the body so much that it doesn't respond to anything as aggressively as it should, and the person ends up not being able to fight off even the less extreme stuff, or worse, responds too often and starts attacking the person's own cells (autoimmune disorders). The more things you vaccinate against, the greater that risk.

      I'm absolutely in favor of vaccinating for deadly viral diseases that are highly contagious, but the moment you start to demand mass immunization for

  • by Anonymous Coward

    These kinds of problems (rampant disease in cattle) seem to affect mostly cows crammed into unclean and unsanitary conditions.

    Maybe they don't need a vaccine at all, but better animal husbandry. But I guess common sense and decency will never win out against greed.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      Actually, giving vaccines to animals, along with humans, does NOT harm anything. It is using antibiotics heavily that causes issues.
      In places like China, they avoid vaccinating many of their animals and then hope that they will not get sick, but if they do, they simply use the cheap stolon antibiotic. Of course, that is what gives us antibiotic resistant microbes.
  • Yeah, as forskolin reviews [dr-forskolin.com] said to me at my last consultation, next 10-15 years gonna be a medical revolution and we gonna be as healthy as never before. So, seeing news like this really makes me feels like we going into future for real.

Think of it! With VLSI we can pack 100 ENIACs in 1 sq. cm.!

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