[HN Gopher] Global Health Threat: Antibiotic-Resistant "Superbug...
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Global Health Threat: Antibiotic-Resistant "Superbug" Spreading in
Malaysia
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 51 points
Date : 2025-04-07 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (scitechdaily.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (scitechdaily.com)
| msandford wrote:
| They can write a whole article about how bad it is, but they
| can't even say what the pathology is?
|
| Does this cause colds or Ebola? I know Ebola is viral. I'm
| talking about symptoms
| Centigonal wrote:
| It's an opportunistic pathogen that mainly spreads in hospitals
| among people who are immunocompromised or otherwise ill.
| Symptoms vary wildly, because it can infect different organs
| and tissues, and can include pneumonia and meningitis.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acinetobacter_baumannii
| Ringz wrote:
| Wouldn't these restrictions prevent a global pandemic and
| thus refute the headline?
| candiddevmike wrote:
| No one mentioned pandemic. It's a health threat--if this
| thing gets into a hospital its very, very hard to get rid
| of. Most people prefer their hospitals as sterile as
| possible.
| ignoramous wrote:
| > prefer their hospitals as sterile
|
| Ah well, except for the _sinks_ , which are breeding
| ground for superbugs:
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10469867/
|
| In a hospital setting, superbug x-contamination is often
| fatal: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-contaminated-
| hospital-supp...
| ashoeafoot wrote:
| Its also something that can become a damocles swoard.
| Like its living in your intestines harmlessly, but if you
| have a ulcer or somebody in your house gets with a cut
| near your toilet - exitus.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| A global health threat doesn't have to be a pandemic
| affecting otherwise healthy people to be a global health
| threat. In this case, the threat would presumably be that
| the same bacteria winds up in health care facilities
| elsewhere.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| The "whole article" includes:
|
| "A. baumannii can cause infections in blood, lungs, urinary
| tracts, and wounds. It typically causes these in healthcare
| settings, such as hospitals. Owing to its ability to resist
| antibiotic treatment, it has been listed by the World Health
| Organization (WHO) as a critical priority antibiotic-resistant
| pathogen."
| m00x wrote:
| It's a bacteria, so it causes an infection.
|
| Your body should be able to get rid of it by itself, but if it
| can't, the infection will grow and be fatal.
|
| It's not just in Malaysia, but typically these cases are rare
| so it being widespread is worrisome. We have MRSA in North-
| America, but hospital processes eliminate most of the spread of
| bacteria through thorough cleaning.
|
| It's not much to worry about if you're in a first-world
| country, but this may cause a lot of deaths in these countries,
| and force them to spend more on cleaning procedures.
| Teever wrote:
| > but hospital processes eliminate most of the spread of
| bacteria through thorough cleaning.
|
| Not really. I worked at a hospital over a decade ago and I
| during an onboarding training session we were told that 1/8
| patients will receive an infection as a result of their
| hospital stay.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| The research in question:
| https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10...
|
| They were doing genetic sequencing across a decade or so at this
| one hospital to document how the bacteria is evolving to develop
| resistance - and it currently has resistance to a wide number of
| drugs.
|
| Sounds like it is highly prevalent in hospitals in lesser
| developed countries and has been slowly developing resistance but
| not widely studied, and this particular strain at this particular
| hospital seems to be further along the path.
|
| WHO considers it a "critical priority antibiotic-resistant
| pathogen."
|
| Most hits on the subject in the news seem to be coming from
| tabloid-level organizations. This looked fairly sane:
| https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-deadly-antibiotic-res...
|
| A reminder to HNers, from another HNer:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10812804
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acinetobacter_baumannii#Antibi... 3
| pathways to antibiotic resistance... nice. These are clever
| bacterium.
|
| TIL "Efflux pumps are protein machines that use energy to pump
| antibiotics and other small molecules that get into the bacterial
| cytoplasm and the periplasmic space out of the cell." They even
| have their own bilge pumps!
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