Volume 4: Antibiotic Resistance: Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi and Other Pathogens, A Threat to World Health

The mission of Volume 4 of the Phenomenology of Biocatastrophe publication series is to provide timely updates on the emergence and growth of antibiotic resistant and viral infections. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) is the most important public information source about infectious diseases as noted in the following annotated citations, which also include NGO research and documentation of a wide variety of bacterial and viral infections.

Volume 4 in .pdf (Continual work in progress)

Update on antibiotic resistant infections in India

Harris, Gardiner. (2014). 'Superbugs' kill India's babies and pose an overseas threat. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/asia/superbugs-kill-indias-babies-and-pose-an-overseas-threat.html?_r=0

"A deadly epidemic that could have global implications is quietly sweeping India, and among its many victims are tens of thousands of newborns dying because once-miraculous cures no longer work. These infants are born with bacterial infections that are resistant to most known antibiotics..."
"Indian pediatricians say that the rising toll of resistant infections could soon swamp efforts to improve India’s abysmal infant death rate..."
"“Five years ago, we almost never saw these kinds of infections,” said Dr. Neelam Kler, chairwoman of the department of neonatology at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital...“Now, close to 100 percent of the babies referred to us have multidrug resistant infections. It’s scary...”"
"A growing chorus of researchers say the evidence is now overwhelming that a significant share of the bacteria present in India — in its water, sewage, animals, soil and even its mothers — are immune to nearly all antibiotics..."
"While far from alone in creating antibiotic resistance, India’s resistant infections have already begun to migrate elsewhere..."
"Indeed, researchers have already found “superbugs” carrying a genetic code first identified in India — NDM1 (or New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase 1) — around the world, including in France, Japan, Oman and the United States..."
"Global sales of antibiotics for human consumption rose 36 percent from 2000 to 2010, with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa accounting for 76 percent of that increase. In India, much of that growth has been driven by private doctors who deliver about 90 percent of care here and are often poorly trained. Much of these doctors’ income comes from drug sales..."