

‘Superbugs’ found breeding in sewage plants - bra-ket
http://news.rice.edu/2013/12/16/superbugs-found-breeding-in-sewage-plants/

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FreeKill
Whenever I read a story like this (there have been dozens lately), I simply
don't have the background to determine how big of a problem this is going to
be. Are these bugs antibiotic resistant just to current antibiotics? Is the
only reason we have nothing that currently kills them is because it's not
profitable for research into fighting them? Basically, what I'd love to know
is are we on the cusp of a new Black Plague type of scenario with antibiotic
resistant bugs or is it simply a problem that we haven't been working on?

I read somewhere a while back that no one has really been focusing on new
forms of antibiotics because the old ones worked, and it's not profitable for
pharmaceuticals to research it, as it's the type of drug a person takes for a
limited time only (aka non-chronic) so the profit potential is much lower than
say AIDS medication. Not sure how much truth there is to that however...

~~~
timr
_" what I'd love to know is are we on the cusp of a new Black Plague type of
scenario with antibiotic resistant bugs or is it simply a problem that we
haven't been working on?"_

The answer to the first question is: quite possibly, but with something like
tuberculosis instead of the plague. Less immediately scary, but more harmful:
resistant forms of more common bacteria will create serious risks when
undergoing any sort of surgical procedure. We could get back to the days when
your biggest risk of surgery was dying from infection afterward.

The answer to you second question is: no, we haven't really been working on
it. But the big problem is that we can't just invent new classes of
antibiotics overnight. If one of these strains takes off, things will get a
lot worse before they get better.

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jpcosta
Could UV light be used at waste plants and hospitals to help prevent this kind
of bacteria from spreading?

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timr
Yes, UV light would be more effective than chlorination at killing most of
this stuff. But, you know...good luck convincing people to add expensive UV
systems to their sewage effluent.

~~~
maxerickson
Apparently there is anyway movement to UV, as it is safer than
handling/dealing with chlorine (at least, this is what someone tells me about
the industry in the US).

~~~
timr
UV is certainly easier to deploy than chlorine gas (a UV leak won't poison
everyone in the room via gas inhalation), but it's still dangerous at the
scales used to sterilize large quantities of water.

The bigger problem than either is that AFAIK, few places bother to sterilize
their effluent. I'm not even sure if San Francisco bothers to do that,
actually...

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barrkel
One would hope that antibiotic resistant bacteria would be outcompeted in
sewage by other bacteria with more mundane selection pressures.

Alternatively, the sewage actually has residual antibiotics in it. A cursory
Google indicates this may be the case. They ought to be removed from the
sewage by treatment.

~~~
HoochTHX
There's more than just antibiotics in wastewater, google for studies relating
to the feminization of fish due to the residual levels of anti depressants in
wastewater. The processes used determine what gets removed from the water.
Most facilities use aerobic breeding zones, forcing extremely high volumes of
air into the water to allow from friendly microbes that actually end up doing
most of the real work digesting the waste. Microbes don't eat everything, so
expecting them to eat the all of the unwanted products in the sewage is not
going to happen. To get everything, you would need first research to identify
bugs that eat the particular thing your wanted disposed of, and then a new
zone at treatment plants for that process. Its real easy to say yeah they
should remove this, but when you get into the details to understand why its
not happening you begin to see this is a massive undertaking.

~~~
aestra
Um, it isn't anti-depressants that are feminizing fish. That doesn't even make
sense. It is synthetic estrogens, ie pee from women taking birth control
pills. Also a few other things, bisphenol A, and certain types of natural and
synthetic steroids that are byproducts of agricultural run-off and cattle
farming.

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100729122332.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100729122332.htm)

~~~
HoochTHX
Thank your for the correction, I always make at least one mistake before I've
had coffee.

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xerophtye
So... not only can some bacteria develop this immunity, they can transfer it
to other bacteria? (kinda like a torrent isn't it?) That's so cool (albeit
very dangerous for us).

Though if you look at it this way: Bacteria have been researching on vaccines
against anti-biotics in their built-in genetic labs. And when a group of them
finally had a break through, they started distributing it pretty fast!

Looks like they're doing a better job of research and knowledge dissemination
than us... Still think it's ok for journals to hinder sharing of knowledge by
taxing it and thus increasing the cost of research??

~~~
velis_vel
> Still think it's ok for journals to hinder sharing of knowledge by taxing it
> and thus increasing the cost of research??

What the hell does that have to do with anything?

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jimworm
Beta-lactamases are now pretty much everywhere, but the difference with NDM-1
is that it's not inhibited by the standard defence against beta-lactamases,
clavulanic acid.

With these plasmid being traded around out in the wild, the fear is that we
might soon see all beta-lactams become useless, like penicillin is now.

~~~
midas007
Interseting. Btw... should triclosan and similar be regulated / limited?

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alexeisadeski3
Well that's it.

No more playing in the sewage for me.

~~~
tehwalrus
or drinking the water that's released from the sewage plant after treatment,
or eating the food grown with the solid waste as fertiliser.

~~~
dredmorbius
That last is actually something of a real concern.

Farmers use manure (non-composted, hence, unsterilized) for fertilizer, but
new regulations in the US require many months (I think as many as nine)
between manure application and harvesting for food crops. For most crops this
is sufficiently long that it makes manure untenable as a fertilizer.

There _are_ alternatives, exclusive of chemical fertilizers, including compost
(which is sterilized by the heat). However these have higher costs, which is
what it all comes down to.

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snake_plissken
I have this notion of sewage plant workers: they NEVER get sick while working
over multi-year/decade periods at the plant. It's all anecdotal, because it
was from a quote in an article, and you don't know if the guy was telling the
truth, but it stuck with me for some reason. Who makes a claim like that and
then connects it to working at a sewage treatment plant? I think originally I
read about it in a NY Times article about the sewage treatment plant workers'
union a few years back but I currently can't find it.

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muhuk
I was surprised to find this in wikipedia [1]:

    
    
        A strain of bacteria, or any microorganism that causes illness or has a superficial resemblance to an insect or bug
    

I think it's quite confusing to call bacteria, bug. But I'm not a native
speaker. Is this common usage?

1: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug)

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dm2
When fusion power comes online (20 years hopefully?) could we simply boil all
of this sewage?

Is the idea of near unlimited electricity a pipe-dream or do we have a chance
of it becoming a reality in the near future?

Isn't there a possibility that the bacterial will eventually evolve into
something that is resistant to UV radiation treatment?

~~~
arethuza
I don't think there is any indication that fusion power plants would produce
electricity that is much cheaper than current methods - fuel (uranium) costs
are a relatively small part of the cost of operating a fission plant (16%-28%)
and fusion plants look like they will be very complex engineering systems so
the capex costs are still going to be pretty high (look at ITER and that won't
even try to generate electricity).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plan...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plants#Uranium_costs)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER)

I guess you could expose your sewage directly to the neutron flux of a fusion
reactor.... :-)

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Havoc
Couldn't this be fixed with some high powered UV lights? (Though I recall some
interaction between sunlight & drinking water)

And wouldn't flouride/chlorine kill it?

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elorant
Assuming that you live in a city and you’re a tad paranoid about all these
stuff. What practical advice could be given? What could we do in an individual
level?

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rikacomet
one thing to note is, that a superbug's ability to resist multiple drugs, also
can mean that due to its complex structure, its similar to a well written
computer virus like Flame.

Meaning, on contact with human body, or other living animals, how it would
react is still a matter about which very less is known, and very less is
written.

On the bright side, compare it to the recent comet, which was touted to be the
"Comet of the Year/Decade" for its expected brightness, if it survived the
sun. Well it didn't, and we have a dud! So, compare that to human body, and
superbug interaction. What will happen... is yet to be known .

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Nux
We should send some of this stuff to Mars.

~~~
infruset
then all those antibiotics on Mars will be useless. Victory!

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asn0
Surely the NSA will protect us from these too.

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alan_cx
Not unless these superbugs are online.

BTW, as your karma should show you, HN has no sense of humor.

