The failure of antibiotics - what happens next?

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Antibiotic work afflicted by the bottom line blues Large companies turning to more profitable drugs; small biotechs may be the answer 09:36 PM CST on Saturday, February 25, 2006 By LAURA BEIL / The Dallas Morning News Sylvia LaRue had been a nurse long enough to know that the golf-ball size lump shooting pain into her scalp was a staph infection. The test results still stunned her. "I've been a nurse since 1977, and I've never seen a lab report like that," the University Park resident said of her 2004 encounter with

Staphylococcus aureus. The bacteria were resistant or just marginally vulnerable to 10 of the 11 medicines on the list. The single option left to her was trimethoprim/sulfa – not a creation of high-tech science, but a combination developed decades ago. In the modern antibiotic era, the old drugs are often the only drugs. Many of the world's pharmaceutical giants are losing interest in the pursuit of new antibiotics and slashing their antimicrobial research divisions. At the same time, the germs continue to strengthen their ability to defy the drugs already on the market. Already, some patients are left with only one or two useful medications. As resistance climbs and research interest falls, infectious disease experts worry about a day when some infections may reach the point of being virtually unstoppable. "I don't think it's a crisis right now," said Dr. George McCracken, head of infectious disease at Children's Medical Center Dallas.

But it might be, he says, "in the next three to five years." He and other experts are most concerned about the microbes that breed in hospitals, such as staph, pseudomonas and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. These germs seize on weakened patients connected to tubes that offer bacteria inviting portals to the body's innermost reaches. About 2 million people each year will contract an infection they didn't have upon admission. . "I think everybody needs to know how serious this is." E-mail lbeil Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022606dnantibiotics_26nat.State.Edition1.2a9419e.html "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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