Am Have an idea for a story? Mi news@theotherpress.ca ¢ DSU comedy club spotlight ¢ Douglas releases fall exam schedule ¢ The benefits and deterrents of recreational drugs ..and more Common stomach bacteria becoming super » Research shows ulcer-causing bug immune to drugs Illustration by Cara Seccafien Atiba Nelson Staff Reporter We the end of the semester near, there’s no doubt that student stress levels are rising. Now, there is another thing for students to stress about: A new superbug. Prior to ground-breaking research, physicians and scientists would anticipate an increase in gastric ulcers among students, as these ulcers were previously linked to stress and the spicy foods that students would sometimes consume while studying. Thirty-seven years ago, two Western Australian doctors—Barry Marshall and Robin Warren—challenged the notion that stress caused stomach ulcers and showed that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a helix- shaped gram-negative bacterium, was to blame for the sores in stomach lining. Initially the medical community scoffed, but soon their discovery became commonplace, and in 2005 Drs. Marshall and Warren were awarded The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the “ bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis [inflammation of the stomach] and peptic ulcer disease.” The discovery that bacteria caused stomach ulcers was Nobel-worthy because medicine had the tools to combat bacteria: Antibiotics. When a patient's symptoms and investigations revealed an infection with H. pylori, a physician would prescribe a regiment of two antibiotics (amoxicillin and clarithromycin) and a medication that inhibits the stomach from generating stomach acid (pantoprazole) and the bacteria would be eliminated. That is, until now. Anew study in Gut—a journal under the British Medical Journal umbrella— has shown that H. pylori is no longer responding to one first-line antibiotic, and that in Europe the “High rate of clarithromycin resistance no longer allows [for] empirical use in standard anti-H. pylori regimens,” as stated in the study’s abstract. The authors titled the article “Helicobacter pylori resistance to antibiotics in Europe and its relationship to antibiotic consumption.” However, now TransLink strike in the city > Big halt in life in the metro Tania Arora Staff Writer n October 28, workers at Coast Mountain Bus Company gave a 72- hour strike notice. With no agreement made, transit workers commenced their strike starting November 1. The company provides bus services throughout major areas of Metro Vancouver and operates the SeaBus. The union gave the company 72 hours to come up with an agreement by November 1 at 8 am or else the transit workers would strike. The first phase of the strike would see operators abandoning the uniforms and maintenance workers declining overtime. The main reasons behind the strike are working conditions for transit operators, wages, and benefits. Due to over-crowded buses, tight schedules, and traffic, it is claimed that it is hard for drivers to take breaks, eat, or regroup. The union is also fighting for competitive pay. The previous TransLink strike in 2001 lasted for four months. In 2016, the blue bus operators of West Vancouver Blue Bus workers refused to work for one day. According to reports by Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, “Our number one goal is a fair contract that ensures our members are working under safe and reasonable conditions, so they can best serve the public,” said Jerry Dias, National President of Unifor. The overtime ban would lead to fewer buses running on roads and delays in SeaBus. On November 1, TransLink announced that passengers should expect the cancellation of 14 SeaBus sailings and then another 20 the next day due to the strike. Anushka Basantani, a student at Douglas College, in an interview with the Other Press mentioned, “I completely read and understood the reasons behind the strike, but if [it’s] not dealt with immediately, [it] could lead to a lot of inconvenience for the public. I don’t know how I will commute to school without any bus. It is hard to believe that even in such a progressive country, workers are exploited.” The buses require regular maintenance and repair. With maintenance workers refusing to work overtime, the pressure of the strike will be immediate. “The system has normalized overtime, so without it, the turnaround for repairs and other maintenance will build up quickly,” said Mike Smith, President of Unifor Local 2200. “We trust that TransLink will not put unsafe vehicles back on the road, so it is a question of fewer vehicles available in the system.” Millions of people board buses every month with rider numbers increasing every year. Four contracts are being reviewed in the entire process as the previous one expired on March 31, which covered a chunk of people. If no agreement is made, this strike could possibly bring major halt to the life in the metro. Transit passengers might soon have to for look for alternate ways to commute. that the alarm is sounded that H. pylori has mutated and is resistant toa common antibiotic, the bacteria has reached “superbug” status. “The findings of this study are certainly concerning, as H. pylori is the main cause of peptic disease and gastric cancer [and] the increasing resistance of H. pylori to a number of commonly-used antibiotics may jeopardize prevention strategies,” observed Mario Dinis-Ribeiro, President of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, in a press release related to the article. Though the article documented H. pylori’s rise to antibiotic resistance, scientists have estimated that the bacteria had been becoming resistant to conventional antibiotics for years. In 2017, Helicobacter pylori joined a list of 12 antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens" that the World Health Organization claimed needed research and development to generate new antibiotic treatments to avoid a public health crisis. The list included common bacteria such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea. CEN peeing LLIN et Photo by Billy Bui