Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period

… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).

… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)

… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)

… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)

Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

It Took Just Three Weeks for Superbug to Resist Last-Resort Drug, Doctors Say

Ed Cara. Gizmodo. October 21, 2019

Just in time for Halloween, doctors in France say they witnessed a real-life horror tale involving an antibiotic-resistant superbug. In less than a month, their patient’s infection evolved resistance to the last-resort drug they had used to treat it. Thankfully, the doctors were still able to defeat the microscopic threat—and the case may have uncovered a peculiar weakness in the germ.

According to the report, published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a young child had been dealing with recurrent infections of the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa for over two years. P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic infection that sickens tens of thousands of already weakened people in hospitals and other health-care settings in the U.S. a year. In these people, it can cause serious infections.

That was the case with this patient, whose rare liver disease required them to get two liver transplants, the first at age three. Following the second surgery, the patient developed several life-threatening infections, including one caused by P. aeruginosa in March 2016.

Initially, the bug seemed completely vulnerable to the last-resort drug ceftolozane-tazobactam, a combination therapy of two potent antibiotics. But 22 days into treatment, the doctors found a strain of the bacteria in their patient that had evolved resistance to the drug. Other scientists have found that P. aeruginosa can develop resistance to ceftolozane-tazobactam in the lab, but according to the authors, it’s rarely been documented in real-life patients, much less over such a short time.

The treatment was still enough to beat the initial infection, as well as two other infections caused by P. aeruginosa over the next two and a half years. But the case gave the doctors a chance to study up close how it had evolved. So they sequenced and compared the genomes of dozens of samples collected from their patient.

During that time period, they found, the superbug evolved resistance to the last-resort drug at least three times. These events seemed to happen independently of one another, rather than a population surviving and returning with a vengeance. But they all happened in the same way, caused by one single mutation in the bacteria.

Interestingly, while the mutation did make the bacteria better at fighting the last-resort drug, it also appeared to restore its weakness to some drugs it had previously resisted. That could mean, the authors wrote, that even scary cases like this could be treated by a “potential alternative therapy” that relies on older drugs. The discovery may even help doctors in the future find a way to prevent this particular kind of resistance from showing up in the first place, they added.

Still, like many a horror-movie monster that won’t stay dead, superbugs have come up with all sorts of tricks that allow them to evade death. And it’s more than possible, if not inevitable, that a strain of P. aeruginosa or another bacteria could someday combine the right mix of mutations that lets it resist last-resort drugs as well as keep its existing invulnerabilities. Just another fun possibility to think about late at night!