antibiotics (Page 4)

Honey helps treat wounds that refuse to heal because it stops bacteria from growing, and even fights strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. This discovery is especially important because conventional antibiotics no longer work well, since many strains of bacteria are no longer affected by them. People covered wounds in honey in ancient Egypt, and scientists used to think it worked because it kept the air out and its high sugar content slowed bacterial growth. Now we know it?s a real antibiotic.
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Doctors in Detroit recently amputated the toes of a 40-year-old woman who was not responding to antibiotics and discovered she was infected with a virulent new strain of staph bacteria. The new bacteria became totally resistant to all antibiotics by stealing genetic material from another bacteria. Dr. Fred Tenover of the CDC says, “This is an organism that could cause very serious disease if it was in the community.” Experts think that eventually so many bacteria will develop resistance that antibiotics won’t work any more, and hospitals will be filled with people dying from what used to be curable infections.
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A substance found in saliva could help develop new drugs to treat antibiotic-resistant infections. It raises hopes for people with diseases like HIV and cystic fibrosis, who regularly develop infections that are difficult to treat with conventional drugs.

Dr. Libuse Bobek, of the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in New York, discovered the saliva chemical, which kills fungal agents like candidiasis, cryptococcosis and aspergillosis that can threaten people whose immune systems are compromised. It also destroys several bacteria, including E.coli and P. gingivalis, which cause serious intestinal and oral infections, and S. mutans, which causes tooth decay.
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We are told not to over-use antibiotics, especially for minor problems like a sore throat, or else our bodies will become resistant to them. But this new medical policy may have caused the return of a potentially fatal disease that had almost vanished.

Lemierre’s disease was fairly common early in the 20th century and was eradicated when antibiotics were ntroduced. But British researchers have noticed a resurgence of the disease.

“We haven’t seen it, and suddenly we saw three cases within a few months,” said Wynne Jones, a consultant medical microbiologist with the Public Health Laboratory Service in England.
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