Summary
There's a superbug crisis brewing in the United States, and it's caused by the overprescription of antibiotics by doctors. The answer to this crisis, say medical researchers, is to come up with yet more antibiotics. If we don't, hundreds of thousands of hospitalized patients could die each year from superbug infections that simply can't be treated with even the strongest antibiotics available today.
I have a different take on all this: maybe antibiotics are the problem, not the solution. Maybe we need to support patients' immune systems so they can fight off infections, and stop concocting ever more complicated pharmaceuticals that actually promote the breeding of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.
Original source:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=11074
Details
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To avert a looming public health crisis with a unique set of underlying causes, Congress and the Administration, including federal public health agencies, must act quickly to reinvigorate pharmaceutical investment in antibiotic research and development (R&D).
- Otherwise, doctors won't have drugs to protect Americans against antibiotic-resistant infections---a rapidly growing and often deadly problem already causing alarm among public health officials.
- A Public Health Crisis Brews, which the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) presents today to Congress and federal policymakers.
- The report is the product of a year's worth of research by some of the country's top infectious disease physicians.
- "With the threat of bioterrorism, the growing number of microorganisms resistant to drug therapy, the reemergence of previously deadly infectious diseases, and the emergence of new infectious diseases in the United States, there is an urgent need for new antimicrobials," Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) stated.
- It is vital that antibiotics research and development is reinvigorated so doctors have the medicines they need to protect the health of millions of Americans."
- This year, nearly 2 million people in the United States will acquire bacterial infections while in the hospital, and about 90,000 of them will die, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- More than 70 percent of the bacteria that cause these infections will be resistant to at least one of the drugs commonly used to fight them.
- "The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, the Orphan Drug Act, and Project Bioshield, which President Bush is signing today, are three examples.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Thursday, July 22, 2004
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