By Steve Schow — April 5, 2017
Bacteria are living infectious microbes that exist in the environment independent of hosts, although some clearly exist in host organisms (the gut microbiome). Some of the truly massive plagues in human history were bacterial in origin. These bacteria include anthrax, TB, cholera, Yersinia (bubonic - pneumonic plague), typhus, syphilis (a gift from the new world native peoples), gonorrhea, tetanus, salmonella, Lyme disease, C. difficile, Legionnaires’ disease, typhoid fever, leprosy, rheumatic disease and various forms of bacterial pneumonia and meningitis.
As can be seen from the two lists below, bacterial organisms were the major diseases killing us in 1850. By 1900, sanitation had changed that list considerably, but bacterial infections were still the top three killers prior to the introduction of those wonder drugs, the antibiotics, starting in 1905 with the release of the anti-syphilis drug Salvarsan. Salvarsan, an obnoxious organoarsenic-based drug, was a miracle drug in its time but ultimately was replaced by penicillin and other safer antibiotics.
However, Salvarsan may rise yet again when syphilis becomes resistant to all those new antibacterial drugs......To Read More.....
No comments:
Post a Comment