Medical Hazards to the Outdoorsman

By Justin Stakes

by Dennis MD, PhD, Capt USN (Ret) and Carolyn Johnson, RN

United States -(AmmoLand.com)- At the risk of boring the reader, here are some facts we’d like to pass along about adventures in the boonies.

Bacteria rapidly adapt to harsh conditions because they can reshuffle their genes in a flash because they replicate in minutes. Moreover, once they have achieved the correct genetic recombination that solves their environmental problem , they can readily transfer those genes to their neighbors. This capability has allowed them to exploit every seemingly uninhabitable ecosystem imaginable. They flourish everywhere from nuclear reactor cooling systems to barrels of crude oil.

Similarly, the in-discriminant use of antibiotics has generated resistant bacteria. First in hospitals, where MRSA , an antibiotic-resistant pathogen, emerged. It didn’t stop there. Many more microbes have acclimated to antibiotics while the development of new antibacterial agents lags behind their adaptive powers.

Currently, the risk of contracting an antibiotic-resistant infection in our communities is approaching that only once seen in hospitals. How could this happen?

The proven method of producing microbial resistance is to expose the bugs to a low concentration of antibiotic. Killing microorganisms requires a sludge …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand