Super bacteria, the "devil of the world" raised by humans

Super bacteria, as the name suggests, are particularly powerful bacteria, the tough guys in the bacterial world, and most antibiotics in the world are ineffective against them. If we must give a definition, then super bacteria can be regarded as a general term for a class of bacteria with multi-drug resistance.

At present, the super bacteria known to people mainly belong to the category of "ESKAPE". "ESKAPE" is actually a combination of the first letters of the Latin names of six super bacteria, among which the letter E stands for Enterococcus faecium, the letter S stands for Staphylococcus aureus, the letter K stands for Klebsiella pneumoniae, the letter A stands for Acinetobacter baumannii, the letter P stands for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the last E stands for Enterobacter sp.

Each of the above bacteria has brought bloody lessons to mankind. The following is an example using Klebsiella pneumoniae as an example.

Klebsiella pneumoniae can use the pili (some filaments on the surface of bacterial cells that are thinner, shorter, and straighter than flagella) on its body surface to attach to the patient's throat, trachea, and bronchi, and penetrate deep into the lungs, destroying the alveoli and causing alveolar hemorrhage and bloody sputum in the patient.

In addition, Klebsiella pneumoniae can release endotoxins that can damage blood vessels and cause fatal shock. It is no exaggeration to say that Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major killer of humans.

So, where do superbugs come from? Do they exist naturally? In fact, superbugs were gradually "domesticated" after humans used antibiotics in large quantities.

At first, superbugs were small characters, ordinary bacteria that were inconspicuous. They lived freely in the environment or in the bodies of organisms, and lived and coexisted with other types of bacteria, but their later "encounters" changed their fate.

For example, when humans began to use antibiotic A, a certain type of bacteria almost suffered a catastrophe. However, there were very few survivors among them who survived due to their own mutations or the acquisition of antibiotic A-resistant genes carried by foreign microorganisms.

The bacteria that survived this catastrophe were officially promoted to small superbugs and were no longer afraid of antibiotic A. Since then, in the long process of reproduction of this bacterial population, similar "catastrophes" have occurred several times, and as a result, they have successively acquired genes and abilities to resist antibiotics B, C, D, etc.

Finally, at a certain point in time, the descendants of this bacterial group achieved success and became true super bacteria, enjoying a transcendent status in the bacterial world. At this time, almost all antibiotics in the outside world are helpless against them. Once they enter the human body, they will cause diseases and become complete killers of humans, ruthlessly harvesting lives one after another.

In 2005, the death toll from MRSA infection in the United States reached 18,650, and the number of infected people reached 94,360! Once super bacteria break out, the consequences are extremely terrible.

So, are there any simple and effective preventive measures? In fact, the easiest thing to do is to pay attention to personal hygiene and wash hands before and after meals. People engaged in medical care, health care and related scientific research should pay more attention to it.

In order to reduce or avoid the recurrence of tragedies, people should move forward with reflection. Isn’t the emergence of super bacteria due to human abuse of antibiotics?

There are at least two points worth noting in the daily use of antibiotics:

First, scientific medication. The so-called scientific medication means "giving the right medicine at the right time, through the right route, and in the right dose to the patient."

Second, once used, all pathogenic microorganisms must be killed. Relevant data show that my country is one of the countries with the fastest growing bacterial resistance rate in the world, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20%.

On the one hand, unscrupulous doctors prescribing drugs for profit is one of the causes. However, patients only care about expensive and immediate effects, which is also a major contributing factor. Coupled with the shortcomings and loopholes in the management, recycling and disposal of antibiotics, it is not difficult to understand why drug-resistant bacteria are rampant.

For the sake of life safety, humans must have a life-saving trump card - antibiotics that super bacteria have not yet acquired drug-resistant genes. When super bacteria are rampant, we must draw the sword against them and completely eliminate them. Therefore, the research and development of antibiotics is urgent and must be continuously strengthened!

In addition, people have to continue to research, discover and synthesize new bactericidal substances. In the process of human beings fighting against pathogenic microorganisms, hundreds of antibiotics have been discovered and used, and microorganisms have never given up resistance, and dozens of drug resistance mechanisms and gene mutations have emerged one after another.

The devil is one foot high, and the way is ten feet higher. The game between the two will continue. Although humans have a certain initiative in this game, they must not be taken lightly. Looking back at the growth process of super bacteria, we know that they are not good people. However, there is no need to be in awe of them.

Additional materials: Cephalosporin antibiotics

Antibiotics are both a magical weapon for humans to fight against diseases and the "originator" of super bacteria. As a well-known family of antibiotics, cephalosporin antibiotics have made great contributions to mankind.

Cephalosporin antibiotics are a class of antibiotics that are synthesized from cephalosporin C obtained by fermentation of Cephalosporin C, which is a kind of antibiotics obtained by artificial synthesis and modification of its side chain.

Since its advent in the 1960s, this family of antibiotics has gone through five generations and has gradually developed characteristics such as a broad antibacterial spectrum, strong bactericidal ability, high concentrations in tissues and body fluids, and few allergic reactions.

Warm reminder: Do not drink alcohol after using cephalosporin drugs to avoid disulfiram-like reactions.

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