
Urinary tract infections are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics - jseliger
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/health/urinary-infections-drug-resistant.html
======
adav
My partner is particularly prone to UTIs. In the UK, people in her position
are given a virtually endless stream of antibiotics. Often doctors end up
recommending taking a small dose every time after sex. No wonder resistance is
increasing!

After a lot of research and self-testing, we came across D-Mannose and had an
idea [1] to help others in a similar position. We were very excited to be able
to help reduce peoples’ recurrent pain and to decrease overall antibiotic use.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been popular as of yet. Any feedback would be
appreciated!

[1] [https://chickpea.care](https://chickpea.care)

~~~
alkonaut
A lot of people with chronic conditions are on constant small dose
antibiotics. I have a daughter that contracts pneumonia from every little
common cold. She’s on small-dose antibiotics every day now with good results.

Her doctors say a very good reason to keep the use of antibiotics down in the
general population is _just because_ those people would be extra vulnerable to
resistant bacteria. Doctors here have effectively stopped prescribing
antibiotics for things they prescribed it for almost always just a few years
ago, such as regular tonsillitis. That’s the sort of thing that helps.
Obviously a total ban on antibiotics in healthy livestock that the EU adopted
is even more important. I wish we could see that in China/India soon.

~~~
random_comment
Have you looked into the effects of zinc supplementation of common cold
frequency and severity? I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice, etc.

[https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-
cold/e...](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/expert-
answers/zinc-for-colds/faq-20057769)

~~~
alkonaut
I haven’t but I could. The part where colds turn into pneumonia is due to a
congenital issue (a surgically fixed EA+TEF) so that’s probably hard to do
anything about except growing, but if the initial viral infection could be
stopped that would be good. My saying trick for preventing colds currently is
normally a lot of saying e.g “no! don’t lick elevator buttons!”

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weiming
TIL that one of the drugs mentioned in the article has a side effect of
rupturing tendons. [1]

[1] [https://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/news/20080708/fda-
warni...](https://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/news/20080708/fda-warning-
cipro-may-rupture-tendons)

~~~
HyperTalk2
It should be illegal to classify fluoroquinolones as antibiotics. The point of
an antibiotic is that it specifically targets bacterial cells while doing no
damage to multicellular organisms. Fluoroquinolones indiscriminately damage
everything they touch, so they're just a really fancy and strange poison. They
don't just rupture tendons, people will often experience waves of intense pain
throughout their entire body for the rest of their life from the damage done
to their nervous system. Many suspect that "gulf war illness" was in fact
soldiers reacting to fluoroquinolone "antibiotics" which they were the guinea
pigs for. Always check the acting component of an antibiotic that a doctor
prescribes to you, and if it contains fluoroquinolones then you should frankly
treat their act of prescribing it to you as barely any different than a murder
attempt.

~~~
refurb
This is an unreasonable position to take.

Every drug has off target effects, that’s why they have side effects.

Oncology drugs, particularly chemo, attacks pretty much every cell in your
body. That doesn’t mean they aren’t effective.

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duxup
I worry that doctors are still WAY too prone to prescribe antibiotics.

I take my kids in as they've got respiratory issues that when they get the flu
heir airway starts to narrow. A steroid fixes that just fine.

But man most doctors will still offer an antibiotic too ... like dude, I know
that won't help, it's a virus...

~~~
faissaloo
Why on earth would they prescribe antibiotics for a virus? They don't seem
very competent

~~~
prostoalex
What we've been told is that during the virus phase the child's immune system
becomes so weak, that it's prone to develop a bunch of infections (most common
being every toddler's favorite - ear infection), and that the pattern was so
common that they would write a prescription as a preventative measure.

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ycombonator
Antibiotics are available without prescription in countries like India. Not to
blame the people who purchase and take them because the government provided
care is a total failure and they can’t afford private care. Even the private
doctors prescribe antibiotics even for minor viruses without tests. So no
wonder common bacteria are evolving into resistant strains.

------
rectang
Those citrus farmers in Florida are fine with it:

> _" Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn to Antibiotics (nytimes.com)"_
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19945233](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19945233)

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throwaway3627
IIRC c. auris is sometimes a culprit. And now that there's mycotic-resistant
strains and very few antimycotic drug classes, it's not a good trend. We need
more antimycotic drug classes.

------
babyslothzoo
Antibiotic resistant is a huge problem that is only going to keep growing.
Unfortunately very few new drugs are in the pipeline because they aren't
particularly profitable to develop.

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fiatjaf
"depending on a person’s insurance, getting a culture can be expensive."

How is this possible?

I live in a country not famous for its low cost health treatments, but I paid
the equivalent of $6 (six dollars) for an urine culture just some days ago,
and it was a full price paid to a private company, no insurance, no subsidy.

How much can a culture cost in the US?

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drchewbacca
The tragedy of the commons strikes again.

Luckily there's bacteriophages waiting in the wings.

------
jseliger
That the failing power of antibiotics is not a major national political issue
says very bad things about our society.

~~~
_red
There is a certain disconnect between "warning about antibiotic overuse" and
ignoring that the same selection pressures are exerted by vaccine use.

~~~
stallmanite
Got any citations on that? I’ve never heard of pathogens evolving around
vaccines.

~~~
perl4ever
I have no idea, but I Googled "pathogens evolving around vaccines" and got a
couple of interesting hits.

Here is an article about how vaccines cause evolutionary pressure:

[https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-vaccines-can-drive-
pathog...](https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-vaccines-can-drive-pathogens-to-
evolve-20180510/)

And here is a paper about how they mostly don't:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304978/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304978/)

I feel like it's weird that people say something exists and then other people
say no it doesn't without ever typing it in to Google. If you are that
uninterested in the topic, why even post? Surely you can't reassure yourself
about your knowledge that way.

~~~
stallmanite
I did google it. I wanted to know what this guy would say about it. Don’t be
an asshole

Edit: Thanks for digging up references though. And I do feel the same way
about people asking questions when they’re too lazy to search. In this case I
had reasons to do so.

