Fear
has proven itself a significant driver of misplaced priorities in United
States’ society. The recent, tragic and brutal deaths of journalists James
Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of the religious fascist movement ISIS,
also known as the Islamic State, and the subsequent emotional impact of these
events has driven up fear of terrorism not felt since the 2,996 deaths of
Americans resulting from the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center on
9/11. As significant as these current events are, people still tend to lose
perspective.
Reports
from the National Counter Terrorism Center have indicated, based on data from
the Worldwide Tracking Incidents System, that about 17 Americans are killed
each year in a terrorist attack. Yet, fear of terrorism has led to an American
policy of a never-ending War on Global Terror and over the past decade the
military budget of the United States literally more than doubled from about
$350 million to over $700 million, and that’s only the discretionary budget.
If
more than 1,900 Americans died each week from acts of terrorism, the political
results and the response of the American public would be quite predictable.
However, a comparable number of American men, women and children die every
single week from mostly preventable hospital-borne infections in the United
States, according to figures from the Center for Disease Control. These
hospital-borne infections are commonly referred to as healthcare-associated
infections, or HAIs. To place HAIs into perspective, they kill more Americans
than motor vehicle fatalities, AIDs, fires and homicides combined. Innocent,
trusting people taken to hospitals for care and treatment may face death by an
infection completely unrelated to their health problem. Of course, millions of
Americans do survive and recover from HAIs, but at an additional cost and pain.
So,
where is the War on Lethal Infections?
Most
HAIs are due to pathogens that have become resistant to antibiotics. Although
many blame liberal usage of antibiotics by doctors as the cause, a substantial
cause is due to the high usage of antibiotics fed into livestock in factory
farm settings, which in turn results in meat that becomes ingested by the
population. Roughly 40% of all HAIs are the result of a class of antibiotic
resistant staph infection referred to as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA) infection. The bug is resistant to most antibiotics and while it
can be carried harmlessly on the skin, it has the potential to lead to serious
wound infections – particularly in people who are already unwell.
Obviously,
typical good hand hygiene and bathing with antibacterial solution are keys to
reducing infections. Hospitals have tried isolated infected patients, but data
suggest this does little good outside of inducing anxiety and depression in the
patient. Another part of the problem is that drug companies balk at spending
funds researching and developing new antibiotics as their profit margins are
considered to low. Only vaccines are considered less profitable than new
antibiotics.
Most
of the antibiotic development has been done in the past, and drug companies
have little incentive to develop new ones because they don’t see the profit
potential; hence 13 new categories of antibiotics were discovered between 1945
and 1968 and just two new ones since then. Only four of the 12 largest global
drug companies are researching new antibiotics. The last company to drop out
was Pfizer, closing its Connecticut antibiotics research center, laying off
1,200 employees, and moving operations to China. To encourage new antibiotic
development, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed a new
designation, Qualified Infectious Disease Product, or QIDP, to encourage the
development of new drugs to fight the epidemic of antibiotic resistant
infections. Although large pharmaceutical companies have completely dropped the
ball, small companies are stepping up to the challenge.
The
first and only drug to achieve the QIDP label is the drug Dalvance, approved in
June of 2014. Dalvance is taken intravenously and developed by the small-cap
pharmaceutical Durata Therapeutics. However, there is a long battle ahead to
fight off this serious killer that is dwelling in our hospitals.
If
one was to describe other major players in a ‘War against Lethal Infections,’
Zenosense, Inc. would be among the leaders. Zenosense and Spain-based Sgenia
Group have partnered to develop an early-stage MRSA infection detection system.
Essentially, the system uses sensors that detect volatile organic compounds
(VOC) that are emitted at the onset of infection, but before the patient
develop symptoms. Preventing the onset of an MSRA infection in the first place
would be far more preferable than the additional costs of treating a patient
who may be so badly infected, that treatment may not even work.
Show
congress terrorists in the Middle East and it will open its checkbook to the
Pentagon and the CIA; but the loss of nearly 2,000 people a year to HAIs draws
little-to-no attention. Deaths due to HAIs are one of the major crises we have
to contend with in this day and age, and Zenosense is poised to fight this epic
battle for our health and safety.
For
more information, visit www.zenosense.net
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