In the 1960’s, who had ever heard of superbugs? Antibiotics were once the “silver bullet” for fighting infectious bacteria. But bacteria have evolved, and our antibiotics haven’t caught up. Find out why, and how we’re taking on superbugs and antibiotic resistance in the Infectious Diseases group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

© 2015 Novartis AG

Don’t panic! But you should really know about antibiotic-resistant bacteria, aka super bugs. They’re here, and they’re doing very well, thank you. SciShow explains what they are, how they’re getting around our best drugs, and what science (and you) can do to help.
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A superbug gets its power from the ability to mutate. Developing resistance to common antibiotics. A long-standing concern for hospitals and nursing homes, drug resistant MRSA can cause pneumonia and bloodstream infections.

“Nowadays there’s a lot of vigilance about hospital-acquired infection. So hospitals are paying a lot of attention in making sure that people who come to our hospital to get better, we don’t give them an infection,” says Dr. Pranav Shah, an infectious disease specialist with Lee Memorial Health System.

Starting in the late 80s, MRSA hit the community at-large. Causing skin infections, some of them life-threatening. Spread through skin-to-skin contact, athletes and people living in close quarters were most at risk.

“The first outbreak of MRSA was in a NFL football team where they got MRSA because they were sharing in the locker room. And then it came through to the regular population as well,” says Dr. Shah.

From hospitals to homes, MRSA is still adapting. Studies find it now taking up residence in private homes. The CDC estimates 2 in every 100 people are colonized with MRSA, without sickness. As smart as this bug is-m preventing its spread is relatively simple.

“The best thing you can do is hand washing. Hand washing, hand washing, hand washing. That’s all, that’s the best way of preventing you from getting MRSA infection,” says Dr. Shah.

Cleanliness, both careful cleaning and covering open cuts, should keep a damaging bug at arm’s length.

View More Health Matters video segments at leememorial.org/healthmatters/

Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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