Bill wrote:
> We are not all dropping like flies from resistant bacteria.

I know, but would it be comforting to know that you were one of "only"
90,000 who die from infections that year in the US? By the way, both
my mother and her brother died from septicemia in the 1990s (in the
hospital).

The point of my bringing this up is that major drug companies have
drifted away from such routine things as antibiotics and vaccines;
meanwhile, resistance bacteria, ineffective antibiotics and vaccine
shortages are cropping up.

"Changes in natural ecosystems, including the release of large amounts
of antimicrobials, might alter the population dynamics of
microorganisms, including selection of resistance, with consequences
for human health that are difficult to predict."

Why So Many Antibiotic Resistance Genes?

The huge number of antibiotic resistance genes
found in the environment raises the obvious
question of why so many have evolved. Recent
work has shown a pronounced breadth of utilization
of antibiotics as a source of nutrients by
bacteria, and it seems natural that this should
have led to considerable levels of resistance.

FROM
"Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Natural Environments"
José L. Martínez
SCIENCE VOL 321
18 JULY 2008
sciencemag.org

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