Antibiotics crisis 'looming'

[Guest guest]

Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3146082.stm

 

A leading professor is warning of an antibiotics crisis which could

lead to thousands of people dying from treatable illnesses.

Professor Hugh McGavock from the University of Ulster has told the

BBC " gross overprescribing " by doctors is making many antibiotics

useless.

 

He has estimated that in 12 years all antibiotics could be

redundant.

 

The professor, who specialises in prescribing science, claims the

crisis in antibiotics is as big as Aids.

 

He told Radio Five Live overprescribing in the medical profession

and the farming industry over the past 50 years has rendered many

antibiotics useless.

 

He estimates that by 2015, humans will be resistant to all

antibiotics and diseases that are easily treatable now, will be

killers.

 

The professor also claims that the majority of surgery will have to

be stopped because antibiotics are needed to perform operations.

 

As evidence of the crisis already hitting, he points to the

emergence of the MRSA superbug now prevalent in hospitals and care

homes across the UK.

 

'No Doomsday'

 

Professor Roger Finch, a government advisor, agreed that humans are

facing a very worrying problem.

 

But he did not accept it was the Doomsday scenario Prof McGavock

describes.

 

Prof Finch said measures were in place to tackle the resistance to

antibiotics to make sure a crisis did not materialise.

 

A new strain of antibiotics is being developed which make it tougher

for bugs to become immune to them.

 

They work in the same way as many of the methods which the body

itself has always used to rid itself of bacterial infections.

 

However critics say bacteria will eventually become immune to these

drugs and that will make the body's natural resistance less

effective.

 

This could lead to even simple cuts taking longer to heal.

 

Any comments on this? Attilio

[Guest guest]

Attilio,

 

The crisis surrounding the use of antibiotics

over the past few decades is a shining example

of the unintended consequences of well-intentioned

people who think in short, straight lines.

 

Bug theory taught that if it's bothering you,

kill it. This fit well with the prevailing intellectual

milieu in England the US and other 19th and 20th

century countries that were wrestling with the

legacy of empires on which the sun never

set and a manifest destiny to spread the

mandate of God's law throughout the world.

 

There was always lots of killing to be done

in order to pursue the collective aims of

people in what were then rapidly developing

countries that are now morphing into globe

girdling corporate mega-monster structures

that comprehend everything. So the " total kill "

strategy of the antibiotic fans made total

sense.

 

Only reality once again got in the way.

 

Lo and behold we find that the whole program

can now be described as a selective breeding

operation that has carefully applied Darwinian

mechanics to the creation of many strains of

super bugs that just like the super villains in

comic books now threaten us where we are

most vulnerable.

 

Fear itself.

 

FDR was right.

 

We are being enslaved by our own fears.

 

And one of the great potential benefits of

comparative forms of medicine is that the

depth perception provided by the contrast

in modes of thinking about and responding

to disease allows us to see what it is we fear

in new ways and new lights.

 

Had anyone back in '43 just stopped to

assess and evaluate the antibiotic strategy

from a perspective informed by Chinese

medical thinking, well...it is truly pointless

to speculate, except that it allows us to

discover potential applications for the material

we study.

 

What the western world needs far above and

beyond the need of needles and herbs is

the ability to think more clearly about the

strategies and tactics that are developed

and adopted to deal with the very real

challenges of survival.

 

Unfortunately, some of the greatest challenges

we face are those that emerge from our own

well intentioned actions. The great bulk of

antibiotics that have ever been administered

were no doubt given by doctors and pharmacists

who sincerely believed that they were performing

acts of service, mercy, and kindness.

 

What a shock to discover that collectively those

acts combine to create one of the most horrific

scenarios that now faces humanity. You don't

have to take the words of doctors writing in

newspapers either. Just walk into any hospital

in any big city in the US.

 

This has already been going on for years,

and the press has not exposed the whole

picture to view to the general public.

 

Back in 1994 the CDC at its annual meeting

declared the antibiotic emergency. The

response from the pharmaceutical industry?

 

They poured billions into developing...

 

....new antibiotics.

 

If the old strategy didn't work, just do it

again...harder.

 

That kind of thinking will come to an end.

One way or the other.

 

Ken

[Guest guest]

Yes,

and I was made even more aware of this by Stephen Harrod Buhner's book

" Herbal Antibiotics; Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant

Bacteria " which was pub by Storey Books back in 1999.

 

Beyond explaining why we shouldn't be relying on pharmaceuticals, most

of Stephen's book is about treating the symptoms of bacterial

infections using herbs and is from a Western herbal perspective.

 

Personally, I think the real culprit of indiscriminate antibiotic use

is the food industry.

 

Most commercially raised chickens, pigs and cows here in America live

the total of their life on antibiotics.

If one wants animal flesh that has not been raised that way one must

accept they will be paying a premium for it. (and please don't get me

started on the additional insult of bovine growth hormone.)

 

I'm told one of the main reasons the cows are fed antibiotics is here

in America's Midwest is because they are fed grains to make their

flesh taste better instead of their normal diet of grasses.

Cows have a difficult time digesting the grains which compromises

their digestive system.

 

Penel

[Guest guest]

Another interesting complication of this antibiotic problem is that the waters

in much of the world recieve the run-off from the farms AND human refuse, which

puts a large antibiotic load in their biosystem. Maybe fish are a cheap source

of wide spectrum antibiotics, but the high levels of heavy metals, arsenic,

mercury and so on make it unwise to intake them steadystream. But this is just

one more insult with its own contribution to the presentation. We're all

downstream from something, even the space stations have monitor the 14,000

obsolete orbiting gadgets floating overhead. jeez.

 

Penel Eynde LeGrand <hyldemoer wrote:Yes,

and I was made even more aware of this by Stephen Harrod Buhner's book

" Herbal Antibiotics; Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant

Bacteria " which was pub by Storey Books back in 1999.

 

Beyond explaining why we shouldn't be relying on pharmaceuticals, most

of Stephen's book is about treating the symptoms of bacterial

infections using herbs and is from a Western herbal perspective.

 

Personally, I think the real culprit of indiscriminate antibiotic use

is the food industry.

 

Most commercially raised chickens, pigs and cows here in America live

the total of their life on antibiotics.

If one wants animal flesh that has not been raised that way one must

accept they will be paying a premium for it. (and please don't get me

started on the additional insult of bovine growth hormone.)

 

I'm told one of the main reasons the cows are fed antibiotics is here

in America's Midwest is because they are fed grains to make their

flesh taste better instead of their normal diet of grasses.

Cows have a difficult time digesting the grains which compromises

their digestive system.

 

Penel