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Gains cited in quest for strep vaccine

A strep vaccine would be great. I got strep a lot when I was younger, and it was not pleasent. And, as wdlove said, strep is probably the number one reason kids take antibiotics, so elimanating all that antibiotic use would be good.

Edit: wdlove, what does your "contributor" status mean? Is it different than Demi-God(dess)? Is it from giving a larger donation?
 
Elan0204 said:
A strep vaccine would be great. I got strep a lot when I was younger, and it was not pleasent. And, as wdlove said, strep is probably the number one reason kids take antibiotics, so eliminating all that antibiotic use would be good.

Edit: wdlove, what does your "contributor" status mean? Is it different than Demi-God(dess)? Is it from giving a larger donation?
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Thank you for your comments. Sorry to hear that you suffered from Strep multiple times. At least the next generation will have a chance to not suffer in the same manner.

My Contributor status is the same, we each contributed $20 to MacRumors. I just prefer to have the Contributor status for religious reasons.
 
wdlove said:
This vaccine is very good news. It will save on the over use of antibiotics and physician visits. There are also a lot of missed school and work days. It can also go on to rheumatic fever a heart disease. The vaccine should be available in about 10 years.


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/11/gains_cited_in_quest_for_strep_vaccine/
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Thanks for passing on the good news. Having kids, I'm always happy to see potential improvement of health services - and a reduction in use of antibiotics (it's a virus - don't give me antibiotics to make me think I'm going to get better).
 
emw said:
Thanks for passing on the good news. Having kids, I'm always happy to see potential improvement of health services - and a reduction in use of antibiotics (it's a virus - don't give me antibiotics to make me think I'm going to get better).
Click to expand...

Strep throat is not a virus, it is caused by the streptococcus bacteria. That is why antibiotics are prescribed to treat it. However, you are right, using antibiotics to treat a virus will do nothing but increase bacterial resistance to the drug.
 
Right. Strep throat itself is a bacterial infection. I would imagine the virus being referred to is viral pharyngitis, which is the viral infection that often accompanies the bacterial strep infection.

Needless to say, a vaccination for the bacterial infection is an uuber plus. I used to hate getting step throat every winter - some kid in class would always end up with it and then gradually pass it on to everyone. Prevention of overuse of antibiotics is also good. Too many people are given these antibiotic drugs for all of the wrong reasons.

If you have a halfway-decent immune system, let it do it's job - otherwise it gets lazy
 
That is great news. At least someone is finding a way to get rid of the disease instead of just treating the symtoms. I know when i was young, I got strep all the time. So this is defintatly a good thing.
 
The other problem is that parents with a sick child visits a doctor and thinks they should receive a prescription for an antibiotic. Most of the time it's a virus. It's a serious problem because it causes antibiotics to be useless when needed most. It gives bacteria a chance to become immune. Another problem is not finish the medication as prescribed by a physician. It causes the same problems of immunity.
 
The fact is that from the beginning scientists knew that antibiotic resistance was a problem but yet again money came into the equation, and the drugs companies wanted to make lots of it.

In the very early days of penicillin (because it was so expensive to make) - patients had to collect their urine so that the antibiotic could be re-claimed. Antibiotics are not metabolised by the body and are now joining the water supply to increase the resistance problems.

We are trying to sterilise our world and we are doomed to failure. When we by cleaners and sprays etc that are antibacterial - we are foolish. 'Kills 99% of germs' they boldly claim - ok, but what about the 1% that survive and now have the food supply but no competition (in fact they will often eat the very spray that you used in the first place). This is why superbugs in hospitals are a serious problem.

Of course antibiotic resistance does have its uses - genetic engineering would be lost without it.
 
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