Word: vancomycins
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...half of all hospital-acquired staph infections were resistant to the most common types of antibiotics. So what can doctors do? For starters, they can stop prescribing so many antibiotics - it only accelerates the development of supergerms. Already, hospitals are trying to hold back on the use of vancomycin, the last antibiotic silver bullet left in the chamber...
...study was motivated by Hiramatsu's 1996 discovery of vancomycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) in a four-month-old male infant suffering from staphylococcus aureus infection after open-heart surgery. The patient failed to respond to vancomycin therapy and was cured only with a combination of other antibiotics. The strain was named Mu50 and became known as the world's first case of VRSA...
Hiramatsu also discovered that several strains of staphylococcus aureus--namely the Mu3 strain--had the potential of developing into VRSA. Hiramatsu reported that after repeated treatment with vancomycin, Mu3 developed a resistance level equal to Mu50, the VRSA strain. With each dosage of vancomycin the doctor prescribed, the more resistant the population grew, until it became just steps away from full-blown resistance...
Aditi Bagchi `99 says she learned all about this in Science B-55, "Evolutionary Biology." "The history of staphylococcus aureus demonstrates the need for cooperation between the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and the agricultural industries," she says. "Vancomycin is used in huge amounts in animals abroad. Therefore, it's not enough to regulate its use in the medical industry but in the agricultural one as well...
Despite the danger of antibiotics, however, few patients have heeded the warnings. When penicillin came out, it was hailed as the savior for staphylococcus aureus patients, and afflicted individuals today would like to believe the same about vancomycin...