Scientists have discovered bacteria that are resistant to all known antibiotics.  First identified in China, the potentially lethal ‘superbug’, which is resistant to what is known as the ‘antibiotic of last resort’ – colisten – has now been found in the UK.

The director of Antibiotic Research UK, Dr David Brown, warned that it is “almost too late” to stop a global superbug crisis, adding that efforts to find new antibiotics are “totally failing” despite significant research and investment.  The migrant crisis will not help.

Bacterial resistance is driven by a number of factors, namely the increasing use of colisten in agricultural industries, often to increase the physical size of livestock, coupled with their over-prescription for humans. The medical profession has called for immediate regulations to cut back on the unnecessary use of antibiotics which threatens to plunge medicine back into the “dark ages”.  (BBC and The Guardian).

A while ago I was in the Florida Keys (think Caribbean) and was serially bitten by mosquitoes all over my legs and hands.  As far as I know this is a new (global warming?) phenomenon, and in November of all months. So bad were the bites that I had no alternative but to go to the local doctor. Knowing about over-prescription I was reluctant to ask for an antibiotic, but the pain was significant. This is possibly going to be an ataraxial challenge for the future.  What to do about it is a mystery.  I hope to find an anti-mosquito cream that works. The alternative is to drink more wine and make the mosquitos drunk (just joking – but this isn’t funny at all).