Urgent. Please read.
Most of us now know that we have bacteria that have managed to become resistant to our most potent antibiotics. I have read about this for years and certainly seen it in my practice. I recently read that there are strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, acinetobacter and enterococcus that have evolved to overcome almost ever medicine thrown at them. We, also, are very familiar with the fact that Staph. Aureus has developed a resistance to Methicillin. This is called MRSA and is very dangerous and very common. I read that antibiotic-resistant bacteria already kills at least 23,000 people in the United States per year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-an estimate that most experts consider conservative. The United Nations warns that, without action, drug resistant infections could kill 10 million people annually by 2050.
There are scientist around the world frantically searching for answers. Certainly some studies have shown how bacteria are able to outsmart us. It has to do with “plasmids.” These are snippets of DNA, and they can include genes that carry instructions for repelling specific antibiotics. Bacteria can swap useful plasmids with one another. This is evidently quite complicated and beyond the scope of this blog. You may be nodding off already! But one thing I want to point out and the main reason I am writing this is just to warn everyone that when you get a bad cold or flu (viral illnesses) you immediately want your doctor to prescribe an antibiotic. Antibiotics are worthless against viral infections. But many doctors will go ahead and prescribe them to keep their patients happy. They can also justify this by saying to themselves that they are doing this to prevent a secondary bacterial infection. We now know, though, that overusing drugs has not only led to failed treatments, but also has fueled the rise of newly resistant bacterial strains . We, as patients and parents, must stop begging our health care providers to prescribe antibiotics for what is clearly a viral infection.
I hope I have shed a little light on a very serious health care issue. Thank you for listening.
