Week 4 blog: Dirt antibiotic?

As a pharmacy student I was very excited to read this article about looking to bacteria in dirt to develop new antibiotics that can combat Superbugs, which are antibiotic resistant bacterias that have evolved due to over prescribing of antibiotics when it was not necessary. For most common colds, it is usually caused by viruses, and common antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infection not viral infections. Prescribers like to give prescriptions for antibiotics when a patient have a cold which is not going to help unless they have an ear infection, it would only cause a build up of resistant to the antibiotic and would not be as effective when taken too often. When a patient contracts these Superbugs, it  is very difficult to treat because most of the common antibiotics would not work and if the patient can't fight off the infection, it can get serious and lead to death. In the article, the researchers mentioned that there may be up to 10 million deaths globally by 2050 due to antibiotic resistant bacterias, which is a significant number and it should raise concerns. In the study, the researchers have isolated a new class of antibiotic, malacidins, found in the soil, which is showing promising results, hopefully it will be an answer to the treatment of Superbugs.




 Kaplan, S. (2018, February 13). A potentially powerful new antibiotic is discovered in dirt. Retrieved February 15, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/02/13/a-potentially-powerful-new-antibiotic-is-discovered-in-dirt/?utm_term=.cd564e3c0b65

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 17, 2018 at 5:02 PM

    Hi Feng,

    I came upon this article as I was looking for news articles for my blog. I've heard that using dirt to attack superbugs has been a work-in progress. This article also reminds me of an article I had read regarding the Zika virus being used to reduce the size of brain tumors. I'm not sure if that information is accurate - as I had read the article a while back, but it is crazy to think that our science is moving in that direction. Next thing we will hear is that dirt is going to be the cure to cancer! We can only hope!

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  2. UnknownFebruary 18, 2018 at 11:59 AM

    How interesting! I am very excited to learn about this information from you as well. In addition to hearing about reoccurring events involving antibiotic resistance, we are also learning about antibiotic resistance in global health class. It is such a scary subject! I am really glad a new class of antibiotic found in soil has been found to combat superbugs. I just hope people do not overuse this new species of bacteria so there become antibiotic resistance to them.

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