Whee! Multiresistant Yersinia Pestis

[unixronin]

A multiple drug-resistant form of the plague, one of the oldest and most lethal diseases in human history, has been identified by scientists, prompting fears of devastating future outbreaks that cannot be contained by antibiotics.

Tests on a strain of the disease-causing bacterium, yersinia pestis, taken from a 16-year-old boy in Madagascar revealed the organism has developed resistance to eight antibiotics used to treat the infection, including streptomycin and tetracyclin.

Granted, streptomycin and tetracycline are old.  But this is not a promising sign.

Resistance appears to be conferred by a 180-gene sequence being passed around by our old promiscuous microbial friend, e. coli.

(Pointer from tanngrisnir)

Comments

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: Yet another reason to hate antibiotic overprescription. As if I needed another one.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Woot! Plague!

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Go with the classics, I always say. Plague mutating is nothing new, and they've been seeing some resistance to drugs for a while, now, though nothing that dramatic. Oh, did we mention there used to be a vaccine, but they stopped making it in the 1980's because it wasn't cost-effective? They might want to rethink that...

Of course, what they don't tell you is that California has its own little plague mutation that's been running around here since the early 1900's. Pneumonic variation, no rats needed. (It was interesting to be at an SCA tourney back in the 1980's and find the site posted with plague warnings. A little too period.)

[anda.livejournal.com]

I hear it happens in the Outlands as well (warnings about plague).