Subterranean bacteria are prepared to survive antibiotics: Scientists find that all 93 strains of bacteria collected from deep inside Lechuguilla Cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico are already resistant to at least one of the antibiotics we use to fight infections.
Key grafs:
That these life forms evolved in ways that appear to anticipate medicines attests to bacteria’s remarkable powers of survival. It also suggests that the rise in antibiotic- resistant diseases isn’t due entirely to the runaway use of these drugs; rather, try as you might to kill them, bacteria are programmed to endure.
The study appeared on the same day that the Food and Drug Administration announced it would ask drug makers and veterinarians to drastically reduce the widespread use of antibiotics to promote the growth of commercial livestock. And it suggests that while such measures may slow the rate at which infectious diseases gain the upper hand against medicines, they cannot stop that process.
Photo: Microbiologist Hazel Barton, left, collected bacteria from deep inside Lechuguilla Cave at New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Credit: Hazel Barton
Subterranean bacteria are prepared to survive antibiotics: Scientists find that all 93 strains of bacteria collected from deep inside Lechuguilla Cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico are already resistant to at least one of the antibiotics we use to fight infections.
Key grafs:
That these life forms evolved in ways that appear to anticipate medicines attests to bacteria’s remarkable powers of survival. It also suggests that the rise in antibiotic- resistant diseases isn’t due entirely to the runaway use of these drugs; rather, try as you might to kill them, bacteria are programmed to endure.
The study appeared on the same day that the Food and Drug Administration announced it would ask drug makers and veterinarians to drastically reduce the widespread use of antibiotics to promote the growth of commercial livestock. And it suggests that while such measures may slow the rate at which infectious diseases gain the upper hand against medicines, they cannot stop that process.
Photo: Microbiologist Hazel Barton, left, collected bacteria from deep inside Lechuguilla Cave at New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Credit: Hazel Barton
LIVE VIDEO: Charges announced in Trayvon Martin case -
Florida state attorney is expected to announce charges against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting death case at 6 p.m. EDT. Watch live on breakingnews.com.
An official tells AP Zimmerman will be charged with second-degree murder.Zimmerman has turned himself in and is in police custody, CNN reports.
Happening now.
(via latimes)
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