MRSA Scarey read

[kstaven]

Got MRSA?
(Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)
On The Brink Of A Genetically Engineered Disaster
By Robert Cohen
NotMilk.com
12-14-7

The final piece of the jigsaw puzzle has just fit perfectly into place. Click.

Monsanto dumped their genetically engineered versions of four newly-created species of bacteria into European sewer systems. What arrogance. What a complete disregard for human kind. They gave birth to and then released their monster onto this world. First Europe. Now, America. A newly-published study confirms the European beginning of America's growing MRSA epidemic.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has published the shocking results of an investigation suggesting that the MRSA infections now sickening and killing Americans began in Europe, just as I predicted many years ago.

On February 4th, 2004, after waiting seven weeks for a response to my emergency Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that was filed in December of 2003, I reported in a notmilk letter:

"Americans are walking along the cutting edge blade of an environmental apocalypse. Previously un-released FDA insider investigations revealed that Monsanto dumped their GMO mistake into sewer systems. That 'sludge' may very well have contained the untreatable version of Staphylococcus which is now killing Americans."

On Wednesday, February 4, 2004, I received the damning evidence that confirmed Monsanto's crime against humankind.

My FOIA request revealed:

"Specifically, the corrective actions implemented after the investigation of nine sterility failures reported since 2001 (3 for 2001, 3 for 2002, and 3 for 2003) for Posilac injection or for the lyophilized active ingredient (Sometribove zinc) have not been effective in preventing reoccurrence. In five instances (2 for 2001, 1 for 2002, and 2 for 2003) the organism was identified as Propionibacterium acnes; Staphylococcus species have been identified in three instances and in one instance (in 2002) Bacillus pumilus was found. Propionibacterium was found in environmental samples of the manufacturing areas. Batches manufactured around the same period of time and under the same conditions of the affected lots have been released to the market."

OBSERVATION 2

"Equipment for adequate control over micro-organisms is not provided when appropriate for the manufacture, processing, packing or holding of a drug product."

It has been well reported that a new emerging species of bacteria has developed, immune to antibiotic treatment. Staphylococcus aureus plagues many American hospitals in this new outbreak. Could the etiology of the mother of all deadly Staphylococcus infections be traced to a new genetically engineered version of Staph aureus, a super bug accidentally produced by Monsanto and then introduced into the food supply?

The December 7, 2007 CDC study reveals:

"After multivariate analysis, contact with pigs and cattle were the only 2 significant independent variables...we conclude that this new MRSA strain is of animal origin (pigs and probably cows). We assume that this problem is not limited to the Netherlands."

The new study:

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/13/12/1834.htm

 

[Fancy Feather Poultry]

I think im to young to understand what there talkin about.

 

[Cheryl]

If you want everyone to understand, I suggest you put that in laymans terms, I understand that the last place you want to be these days is a hospital (staph infection) But I would like to say I got the "flesh eating bacteria" infection from a torn cuticle and fortunately a hospital cleaned it out before I lost a limb(s)

 

[Rosalind]

Nope, sorry. You don't need any genetic engineering to create MRSA. How MRSA came to exist is fully documented and well-known. Laurie Garrett does a great job of explaining it for the lay reader in her book The Coming Plague.

There are two components. Since you are interested in the animal component:

Feedlots regularly add low doses of antibiotics to their feed to prevent bacterial contamination rather than as a reaction to sick cows.

See, you and me, if the chicken feed goes buggy, rotten, moldy or stale, we throw it away, compost it. We keep it in sealed bins and only buy relatively small batches in the first place. If one of our chickens gets sick, then we might give it antibiotics, but we might also try garlic or try to let the chicken get over it with a heat lamp, special food and extra electrolytes in the water. It's easy for us to notice and isolate a sick chicken or two in a cage, because when we check on our chickens we look at every single one. We don't keep our chickens in poo up to their wing-pits, either: we sweep out our coops and put down fresh pine chips and straw regularly.

Feedlots aren't like that. If one giant storage tank of feed goes bad for whatever reason, it's a lot of money to them--they don't want to throw out several million $$ worth of feed. So they add antibiotics to feed to help prevent it from spoiling. And they usually don't notice when one chicken in a zillion is looking a little peaky; they only notice when some start dying or lots of animals look truly poxy. They don't want to pay for the number of employees it would take to monitor the animals carefully, or isolate animals as soon as they become slightly ill, because that's expensive. Many of them don't scrub or sanitize their facilities with any great regularity that would keep the microorganism load in the air/water at a reasonable level, even though scrubbing with hot water and soap removes lots more bacteria than chemical sanitizers. Instead, they give antibiotics to their animals all the time, constantly, before any animal is sick at all. The idea is to minimize the amount of disease bacteria that can get a foothold, so even if the animals are filthy and eating garbage, at least it's bacteria-free filth and garbage.

Bacteria develop resistance: This is what bacteria do, and basically how evolution works: Most bacteria will die under these conditions. Billions upon billions of bacteria die when faced with antibiotics. Thing is, there ARE billions upon billions of bacteria. Only one or two have to have the lucky genetic combination to survive. Those survivors become antibiotic resistant.

But wait, there's more: Bacteria are quite good at shuffling their genes around. Other creatures, like humans and dogs and plants, have different mechanisms for moving around genes, but bacteria are capable of storing, replicating and transporting genes to their neighbors independently of how often they reproduce themselves. You know the saying, "give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime"? Bacteria are very good teachers. They can teach all sorts of other bacteria to do all kinds of tricks. So it doesn't take long for those one or two surviving bacteria to pass the lucky genes along to other bacteria, including to the people who butcher, pack, and eat the meat from the feedlot.

However, feedlots only use a few animal-approved antibiotics. MRSA is resistant to animal antibiotics AND human-use-only antibiotics. It got that way, and is most commonly found in hospitals, child care centers, oldfolks homes, etc. because humans are also given antibiotics indiscriminately by their doctors.

When I was a kid, if I had a nasty cold that threatened to keep me home from school, my mother demanded that the pediatrician give me antibiotics. Probably most of you folks remember the same, or have asked the pediatrician for antibiotics or some prescription to get the kids over a nasty croup. Thing is, antibiotics don't help a bit for viral infections, which is mostly what kids get. Pediatricians know this, but they don't like a shouting, angry parent in their office, so they assumed that at least antibiotics wouldn't hurt. The bad news is, they do hurt: Any bacteria that survive the antibiotics (which weren't needed in the first place) are now resistant, and if they cause illness, will require a different antibiotic to treat. Worse than that, lots of people take antibiotics incorrectly--they only finish half the bottle, start feeling better, and stop taking the medicine. Sometimes they stick the bottle in the back of the medicine cabinet for future use, and figure next time the kid gets sick, they'll just take the rest of the bottle and save a trip to the doctor. That means more bacteria are able to survive the onslaught, and become resistant.

When sick people go to the hospital, they already carry a lot of these resistant bacteria, which they acquired from many sources, including food. When sick people are visited in the hospital, their visitors also carry a lot of resistant bacteria. Sick people have lowered immunity, so the bacteria can grow easily. They are given more antibiotics, again, not always appropriately--overworked nurses miss dosing schedules, busy pharmacists dispense the wrong dose, etc. Also, the feedlot mentality applies: It's cheaper and easier for the hospital to give prophylactic broad-spectrum antibiotics (for which insurers will pay) to all incoming patients than it is to employ sufficient staff to care for people and properly scrub and sanitize the building. And health care workers, including doctors, are known for their lack of consistent hygiene. Bacteria are transmitted very quickly through most hospitals.

Simple experiment, using any disinfectant or old unused antibiotic laying around: Boil two cans of plain chicken broth 30 minutes. Let them cool completely in clean jars or some container with an open top. To one jar, add a teaspoon or two of bleach, Lysol, any household disinfectant you've got lying around, or dissolve an antibiotic tablet in the broth. Leave the other jar alone. See how long it takes each jar to spoil. The jar with the disinfectant/antibiotic in it WILL spoil eventually, and the bacteria that are contaminating it are resistant to that disinfectant. You can save a spoonful of this broth, add it to a fresh jar of broth, and add a different disinfectant to the new jar. Repeat with every disinfectant and antibiotic you can find, and you can make multi-drug-resistant bacteria right in your kitchen. This is basically what happens to people when we eat antibiotic-saturated meat and take antibiotics for every sniffle and cough. Ain't science fun?

 

[homecatmom]

I have to get on my soap-box here. My daughter is a wrestler. Lots of skin to skin contact and many mat burns (break the skin) and nail scratches. I have read extensivly on MRSA. It is some VERY VERY bad crap! If any of you have children that are in contact sports, or even if you participate, I suggest that you go to www.cleenfreek.com and read about their sport towels and wipes that are effective AGAINST MRSA. I purchased 100 towels for the wrestling team and will be doing so for the other sports as their seasons begin. Please go to the site and read how very bad this is. We need to protect ourselves and especially our children! Talk to Scott, he is the owner of the company and he can give you all the information. Fore-warned is fore-armed! This has been on the agenda at the Health Advisory Council in our school district (I am a member) for months now. IT ISN'T GOING AWAY!!
Cathy

 

[luvzmybabz]

Me and my family have had a bout with mrsa in 2007 my hubby got it in Feburary on his leg. In August I got it on my face ( best doctors and I can figure is I got it at the nail place ) and 4 days later it was my sons toe that was green and swollen about twice its size. Then yesterday my MIL had a lumpectomy and goes over to where she stays rather then going to her mother's ( a retired nurse ) and one of the people that lives there has staph that has been tested for MRSA but is waiting on results I called her some not so nice things and said why are her son and I and her daughter supposed to care about her health if she doesn't. Well my hubby was working last night when all of this was going on so we are leaving the house in about 1 hour to go and get her out of that place until she is healed she has a couple of large incisions and a drain tube if it was to be contaiminated it would really bad. Its really funny because about 1 month after my self and son had been diagnosed with MRSA through lab work it came on the news about first case in metro maybe first reported case and if I was supposed to report it nobody told me.


After I posted went and read about resistance to antibiotics I just had to reply when I was a child and had horrible ear infections they pumped me full of antibiotics I have since formed an allergy to at least 2 antibiotics (anaphalactic sp? shock ) so with me kids they DO NOT get an antibiotic unless it is a serious issue, however my sons toe required them and the 2 doctors we took him to said that they had never seen MRSA heal so well. I put this to the almost no antibiotics I think he had had them once before for a mystery virus that had him down bad.

 

[patandchickens]

Uh, much as I think MRSA are a serious and underappreciated problem, and much as I do not like nor trust Big Agrobusiness, I think it there is some pretty bogus scare-mongering in the original article...

Whadda they mean "newly-created species of bacteria"? Hmph. Antibiotic resistance is 'just' variation within an existing species. Only of course that don't sound so horrible.

Also, while it is certainly possible that what the article describes has happened, you'd expect to get MRSA in the general environment (as they now are) by 'normal' means, as Rosalind has explained.

It really annoys me when people (and I am referring to the author of the notmilk.com article) go and torpedo an Actual Good Point by mixing in too much ignorance or hype. Sigh.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[homecatmom]

Quote:
Even if it is a "hype", it is a valid issue and needs media coverage that is widespread. Some people do not even bother to read an article regarding major health issues and/or crisis' if it is not "in their faces". My daughter (the wrestler) is allergic to penecillin and sulpha drugs and I will not take the chance that she gets this nasty bug, wether it is genetically engineered or not.

 

[Rosalind]

Pat's point is that MRSA is horrible enough and scary enough in its own merit without having to add untruths to make it scarier.

Some people, when they realize that a good portion of the information they are being presented with is nothing more than a scare tactic, will tune out completely--and continue to put your daughter at risk through poor hygiene and poor industrial practices, because they figure "it's all lies anyway." Do you know how many people, including doctors who should know better, dismiss guidelines on proper antibiotic and disinfectant use because they are tired of hype that turns out not to be true? Far too many. Corporations and regulatory bodies who ARE putting people at risk through their practices (which save them a lot of money--don't think for a minute that there aren't big bucks at stake here) use these articles to dismiss valid public health concerns as "paranoia" and "nonsense".

The more articles like this, the more difficult it is to get the true message across and acted upon: That MRSA is a serious public health threat, that we can start dealing with it by changing business practices (through regulation, innovation or both), that there are steps individuals can take to protect themselves to some extent, that there are other steps which we need to take as a society to minimize disease spread. It doesn't help to suggest conspiracy theories when the origin is already clearly documented, or to tell people that trolls made the MRSA, or to tell them that Santa Claus brought it to us in lieu of a coal-filled stocking.

Hazard communication is a fine art, and a science as well. Since Sept. 2001, we have learned a lot about proper hazard communication in the face of, for example, anthrax attacks. The article above is a near-perfect example of What Not To Do.

 

[turnerstar31]

Ok I understand that you all are afraid but I work in a hospital and deal with it everyday. If you swabbed my nose I would probably have it. If you have a good immune system most of the time your body can fight it off. It effects people in general with a poor immune system. There are a lot of things out there to be afraid of but you just have to live your life. Seriously do you realize how many germs you come in contact with on a daily basis?