Strep Bacteria Resist Antibiotics

News Day / AP ^ | 4/19/2002 | AP Staff

[The Westerner]

You are assuming that it's a laudable goal to make a profit selling drugs to Americans. After all, the cost of prescription drugs is too high. Everyone agrees about that. Isn't it implicit in the criticism of drug companies these days that they are making too high a profit on such an essential commodity...just as doctors are greedy and making too much money? I'm pretty sick of hearing this because I can see the effect will be that some day, way down that road when I need a cure, there won't be a wonder drug or a doctor to help me anymore. There wasn't any profit in it for them after the government and greedy Americans picked them dry, so they quit.

[Calculus_of_Consent]

How about placing the blame where it belongs - on ...moms who insist on running to the doctor every time little Jeremy gets a sniffle or cut, and insisting on a med when they leave.

Sounds like you know my exwife.

[RnMomof7]

No surprise HUH? We have had cry baby mothers plead with Physicians to give them antibiotics as a first measure for years.They, and the weak kneed docs, have caused this problem.

I raised a house full of kids ,I think we only used antibiotics a few times.

Green tea and honey,garlic, zinc, salt water gargles, vitamins..rest and time..

What makes people think that our immune system is any different than our muscles? All of my daughters friends had mono some years ago..she started to come down with some of the symptoms...She rolled her eyes as I got out the garlic,salt and tea..but you know what in a few days she was fine.I later heard her telling a friend on the phone .."go to the store buy garlic and green tea and gargle with salt water .My moms a nurse and it worked for me:>))) A convert !!(today she is a nurse)

But you knew I would say that didn't you??:>))

[rwfromkansas]

not good news for people like me with partial immune deficiency (in the upper respiratory tract). While I don't get sick often since I only have a partial deficiency, I usually DO need to run to antibiotics. I can now tell you how angry I am with idiots who refuse to take their entire medicines. Sometimes I forget to take it on time...it is an easy thing to do, especially if you have to take it three times a day. But I never forget like 2 times in a row which would give the bacteria the ability to start getting resistent. And I NEVER stop taking my medicine. Those who refuse to finish their medicines should not be given antibiotics ever again and if they die, so be it.

I won't let these jerks let the rest of us suffer....and some innocent people will die....due to laziness.

[rwfromkansas]

That definitely is one major cause of the problem.

[scholar]

Powerful drugs should be reserved for powerful illnesses - and shouldn't be pumped into little Jeremy just because Mommy wails about him needing some.

Referring back to previous comments, the pharmaceutical companies develop the drugs. It is the doctors who are prescribing them improperly.

[rwfromkansas]

Folks, most of you are missing the boast to an extent. The doctors are responsible by overprescribing medications, sure. But, another large extent of the fault lies WITH US. Those who do not take their medications to the very end open the door to creating resistent strains. And unfortunately, many think they know better than their doctor when he says TAKE FOR 10 DAYS.

[Timesink]

Powerful drugs should be reserved for powerful illnesses - and shouldn't be pumped into little Jeremy just because Mommy wails about him needing some.

Sorry, but I gotta disagree. Drug companies can advertise all they want, but only doctors can prescribe. The buck stops with the doctors.

[not-an-ostrich]

I've also read articles and seen a couple of 20/20 episodes indicating a direct link between staph infections and OCD. Lord help us if we are creating new generations with a higher number of obsessive-compulsive humans.

[OldFriend]

Strangest this is that even if you personally have not taken antibiotics in a dozen years, you too will be immune to the benefits of Erythromycin or Penicillin.

[The Westerner]

The main issue here is one of individual responsibility. You are quick to assign blame. How about taking into account the very real threat of a malpractice lawsuit that can cost the physician his time, money and license if he doesn't prescibe a drug and a mother sues? The socialist mentality that drives America believes it can get everything free of cost. It is too simple to blame big business or doctors.

[scholar]

You are assuming that it's a laudable goal to make a profit selling drugs ...

Laudable--I guess not--however this is a capitalist economy and I don't know any business who is producing a product or providing a service that is doing it out of a sense of charity. All of the major developments in pharmaceuticals have come from the US because there is a profit motive--unlike our socialist friends.

[friendly]

"A major deadly world wide bacterial epidemic in the next 10 years, ... Whether it's 10 years or 20 years, there is no doubt in my mind it's going to happen."

Unfortunately it is inevitable.

[Betty Jo]

Beware the Bin Laden Medical Matrix!

[Montfort]

You mention all teh antibiotic use among famr animals, but what about teh vast abuse of antibiotics by humans. When you take antibiotics every time your nose runs, you will tend to give the bacteria in your body a chance to gain immunity to antibiotics. Same thing probably happens when some idiot stops taking the course of antibiotics just because he starts to feel better.

[Amelia]

My son & I had strep which was resistant to penicillin & erythromycin about 8 years ago. There was a lot of strep in his school at the time - I called the CDC after my son's 3rd bout with strep in 3 months and when our family doctor decided a tonsillectomy would solve the problem.

The CDC doctor didn't think strep would be contagious in the school, just within the family, but he did suggest a throat culture for diagnosis - to make sure it was strep or something antibiotics would cure, and to make sure the correct antibiotic was being used, AND a throat culture after treatment, to make sure all the bacteria were gone.

We tried this, found that after the recommended treatment with an antibiotic that would kill the bacteria my son still had a few bacteria, gave him 3 more days of the antibiotic which killed all the strep, and he hasn't had strep since - and he still has his tonsils.

[friendly]

"Patent theft causing a dryup of funds? Please - my sides are splitting from the laughter. How about placing the blame where it belongs - on the pharmaceutical companies for pimping each new generation as the perfect cure all, and encouraging the docs to overprescribe it, the docs for overprescribing antibiotics too high up the chain without trying the lesser ones first, and all the soccer moms who insist on running to the doctor every time little Jeremy gets a sniffle or cut, and insisting on a med when they leave."

You points are partly accurate, up to a point.

However when patents are simple stolen, yes stolen, by socialized nations, then the economic incentive to develop new treatments is destroyed. This is a simple truth.

Pirated and uncompensated pharmaceutical production ultimately slows down or eliminates costly corporate research.

Economics 101 at a non-Marxist university.

[scholar]

if you personally have not taken antibiotics in a dozen years, you too will be immune to the benefits of Erythromycin or Penicillin.

That is the crux of the problem. It's not you that is immune to the antibiotic, it's the organisms.