Originally published February 22 2006
New research claims antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers at McMaster University have published a study in Science that claims antibiotic resistance is common in nature, challenging views that propose such resistance is simply the by-product of overused antibiotics.
Researchers at McMaster University screened 480 strains of bacteria they took from soil and tested them against 21 different antibiotics.
Every bacterium was resistant to a number of antibiotics, an average of seven or more, according to the report in the Jan. 20 issue of Science.
"Old compounds, new compounds, it doesn't seem to matter.
That resistance doesn't come from exposure to antibiotics used in medical treatment, Wright noted.
It's just the bacteria's way of surviving in a world full of perils, he explained, since they are surrounded by competing organisms that produce their own natural antibiotics.
"They have evolved a really complicated set of strategies that allow them to deal with all sorts of threats, old threats and new threats."
While overuse or just plain use of medical antibiotics is known to increase the incidence of resistance, this study suggests that natural resistance happens without exposure to those drugs, he said.
"We got bacteria from a number of sources -- urban environments, agricultural environments, the woods in northern Ontario that has not seen any use of human antibiotics -- and the level of resistance was the same," Wright said.
The researchers now are doing more detailed research into the mechanisms by which bacterial alter their genetic function to fight antibiotics.
"One is to alert clinicians and medical biologists to new methods of resistance than can emerge in the clinic," he said.
"This will just help delay and inform about resistance," Wright said.
"It gives people more ammunition to fight it."
The finding could also help refine strategies for finding new antibiotics, said Dr. Stuart B. Levy, a professor of medicine at Tufts University Medical School, and president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
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