Current Event #3: Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria:

To start my report I must voice how terrifying this documentary was for me. Then my
fears turned to frustration and anger; which I will discuss later. The documentaries first case
study is of a healthy 11-year-old American girl. Like a lot of children, she has a habit of
picking at scabs of minor cuts or scrapes. Because she began complaining of hip pain, she
was taken to a doctor. Within two days the child was admitted to ICU with pneumonia. The
doctors diagnosed her with “community associated” Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus
Aureus (CA-MRSA). MRSA infection is caused by a type of staph bacteria that's become
resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections. Staph infections
are caused by staphylococcus bacteria, which are types of germs commonly found on the
skin or in the nose of even healthy people; most of the time they cause no problems.
However, staph infections can turn deadly if the bacterium enters the bloodstream, joints,
bones, lungs or heart. And your garden-variety staph infection can be treated with
antibiotics and or draining the infected area. However, some staff infections no longer
respond to common treatment. These are MRSA infections which occur in people who've
been in hospitals or other health care settings, like nursing homes or dialysis centers. These
are known as “health care associated “MRSA, (HA-MRSA). These infections are typically
associated with surgeries, intravenous tubing or artificial joints, (MC Staff, 2018).

What characteristics make Gram-negative bacteria dangerous? The cell wall of a

bacterial cell is most important in understanding gram-negative versus gram-positive
bacteria. Both have an inner-most plasma membrane, which is a phospholipid bilayer that
directs what enters and exits the cell. One important difference is, a gram-positive bacteria
has a thick cell wall made of peptidoglycan, (about five layers); whereas the gram-negative
bacteria only has about a two layer peptidoglycan cell wall, making it a much thinner
peptidoglycan wall. In addition the gram-negative has a second plasma membrane layer
which sandwiches the thin peptidoglycan. The outer capsule for both is identical. So then
what makes a gram-negative bacterium dangerous is mainly because it has an additional
plasma membrane, and its thin peptidoglycan. These two character differences are what
govern the difficulty for an antibiotic treatment to penetrate the bacterial cell to eliminate it,
(YouTube, 2016).
 A second case discussed in the documentary, is that of a young American adult male,
who travels to India on a humanitarian mission in 2011. This 19-year-old was involved in a
train versus pedestrian serious accident. His name is Ricci and he was about to lose an entire
leg. Tragically, Ricci contracted the very dangerous gram-negatives bacteria called (NDM-1).
He quickly learns that he is now center stage of India's “superbug” crises.

Now this next information is one which I found frightening. New Delhi–Metallo-Beta-
lactamase 1 (NDM-1) is an enzyme that makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of beta-
lactam antibiotics. “The Lancet infectious disease Journal reports findings of the NDM-1
enzyme in 11 different types of bacteria. This is not in itself a bacteria, it's actually a resistant
gene that can turn bacteria into superbugs”, (F. Line narrator). It's resistant to almost all
antibiotics. But what's more frightening is this resistant gene can jump from bacteria to
bacteria. Making treatable infections suddenly untreatable! Even scarier is that NDM-1 isn't
just found in hospitals, it is also found alive and well in the community environment. After
two weeks in New Delhi hospital, Ricci was sent home to Seattle Washington, Harborview
Medical Center; and with him, came this deadly gram-negative bacteria within his wounds. It
turns out that there is very little clinical experience in treating this type of bacteria
anywhere. “Over the last 10 years, hospitals in the New York City area have become the
epicenter for another highly resistant and deadly type of gram negative bacteria. This one
didn't come from overseas, it is homegrown. It lives in the digestive system and like NDM-1
it's a gene that can spread its resistance to other bacteria. It's called Klebsialle Pheumoniae
Carbapenemase, (KPC)”. It began in the summer of 2011, when a woman carrying KPC was
admitted to the hospital. By the time the National Institute of Health (NIH), finally got a
handle of this gram negative bacterium, 18 patients were infected and six people died. Julie
Segre, PhD. Geneticist at NIH reports that the horror, they discovered of KPC, is that it has
the capacity to be a silent carrier gram negative.

What is the relationship between antibiotic-resistant bacteria and natural selection?

Natural selection is expressed by evolutionary changes. Evolutionary changes’ sole mission is
survival. Since the end of WWII we’ve had a plentiful supply of antibiotics, in fact they are a
staple of modern medicine. An antibiotic-resistant bacterium is arguably a result of overuse
of antibiotics. J Martinez writes in “Science Magazine”, 2008, that changes in natural
ecosystems might alter the population dynamics of micro-organisms, including selections of
resistance, which could lead to consequences of human health & bacterial treatment. The
more you expose a bacteria to an antibiotic, the greater the likelihood that resistance to that
antibiotic is going to develop. That is the essence of antibiotics-resistance. The most
important warning from Alexander Fleming himself, the man who discovered penicillin,
(1945), is “that resistance was already being seen, and the more we use penicillin, the more
people were going to die from penicillin-resistant infections”.
 Now here's where the frustration and anger comes in.
Why in the world are pharmaceutical companies not investing in the development of new
antibiotics? Most major drug companies were pulling out of the antibiotic research build just
as the gram negative threat was worsening, about the mid-1990s. Because antibiotics are
not a drug that consumers would require lifelong daily need. In short, it is not a monetarily
lucrative product for the pharmaceutical company.

I truly do believe that this is a complete unethical practice. We have plenty of data that
states, our scientific community are well aware of, what I believe is an inevitable medical
crisis. I believe that their decision to ignore this admitted danger is due to their admitted
focus on the company’s portfolio. So my hypothesis is that these companies are waiting for
the crisis to be near unmanageable and irreversible; only then will they step up and line up
to be the first recipients of federal grant monies for the long-awaited and long
acknowledged research and development need for “superbug” annihilation. I believe that
neither pharmaceutical companies nor the government wants to admit or face this crises
solely for monetary concern.

Citing’s:

(www.mayoclinic.org), by Mayo Clinic Staff, Oct. 18, 2018

(YouTube): Gram-Positive vs. Gram-Negative Bacteria, by Beverly Biology, June 12, 2016.