THE PROBLEM OF ANTIBIOTIC
RESISTANCE AND SUPERBUGS
NO WORRIES: THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING TO THE RESCUE!
(Implementation of Executive Order 13676)
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Antimicrobial resistance is a world-wide problem and increases the difficulty of treating a variety of infections. Each day, every year in the United States, millions of Americans face a major threat from infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.“ Dr. Steve Solomon from the November 10, 2011 issue of the CDC’s Safe Healthcare Blog (Government Takes Action to Combat Antibiotic Resistance)“
Drug-resistant ‘superbugs’ may lead us into a post-antibiotic era, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden says. Frieden said if the current trends continue, ‘the medicine cabinet may be empty for patients who need them in the coming months and years.’ To avoid what Frieden calls a ‘post-antibiotic’ era, where none of the existing drugs work anymore and new ones haven’t been approved, the CDC has created a four-step plan to stem the tide of antibiotic resistance.” From the September 17, 2013 CNN article by Miriam Falco (CDC Sets Threat Levels for Drug-Resistant ‘Superbugs’)“On Wednesday [a week ago yesterday], CDC director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, asked the House Committee on Appropriations for $283 million — an increase of $264 million from last year — to fight antibiotic resistance.” From a recent MedPage Today article by Shannon Firth
“In the vast majority of cases where antimicrobials are used, the microorganisms have found a way to evade or resist the antimicrobial agent. Resistance occurs wherever antimicrobials are used — in the community, on the farm, and in healthcare.” CDC Director, Dr. Thomas Frieden speaking to the House Subcommittee on April 28, 2010
“In 1976, Stuart Levy of Tufts led perhaps the only prospective study to investigate whether small amounts of antibiotic use in livestock could lead to the spread of resistant bacteria to humans. His team began feeding tetracycline to some chickens on a small farm in Sherborn, Massachusetts, that had never before used antibiotics in animals. Within a week, tetracycline resistance appeared in the chickens’ gut bacteria, and then in untreated chickens in neighboring pens—and, a few months later, in the intestinal flora of the farmers. Even more alarming was the fact that with time, the tetracycline-resistant bacteria also developed resistance to other, unrelated antibiotics to which they had never been exposed.” From last Spring’s article by Katherine Xue (Superbug: An Epidemic Begins) in Harvard Magazine
- CRITICAL ACTIONS BEING TAKEN: Thank goodness the government is taking “critical” actions. Not a bad idea considering that, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that drug-resistant bacteria cause 23,000 deaths and 2 million illnesses each year in the United States. Antibiotic resistance also threatens animal health, agriculture, and the economy.” The only problem is that we’ve been hearing this same old re-hashed rhetoric for years — decades really. What would lead us to believe that Obama’s plan is any different than those from any of the similar plans that came before it? Plainly stated; it’s not. Just realize that this latest of his Executive Orders (# 13676) will involve more loses of your freedoms, bigger bureaucracy, more wasted tax dollars, and less common sense — the anatomy of your typical GOVERNMENT-RUN PROGRAM.
- JUDICIOUS USE OF ANTIBIOTICS: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you realize that ANTIBIOTICS are being over-prescribed. What most people do not realize, however, is the extent to which this over-prescription has been occurring. Depending on whose surveys or studies you choose to believe, as many as half or more of all Antibiotic prescriptions in the United States do not meet criteria — I’ve seen some studies that put this number as high as 75%. Again; none of this is new information. I’ve been hearing this same thing for at least 25 or 30 years, although it is definitely getting louder. The problem is, when it comes to this issue, it seems like most of the practicing medical community is either deaf or listening to THUNDERSTRUCK on their headphones.
- STOP GIVING ANTIBIOTICS TO ANIMALS INDISCRIMINATELY: According to Obama’s plan, the goal is to “eliminate the use of medically-important antibiotics for growth promotion in animals“. What’s scary is that few people are aware that Antibiotics are given to commercially-raised animals for the sole purpose of “growth promotion” — i.e. making them fat (HERE). That’s right folks; Antibiotics are given to the animals we consume because they foul up GUT HEALTH by creating an unhealthy MICROBIOME (the number and types of flora / bacteria in your digestive tract), which means you are likely to end up OBESE (HERE). The problem is that when you read the quote above, you realize that neither the FDA nor the USDA really care about eliminating Antibiotics from our food supply — only the “medically important” Antibiotics (whatever that really means). Interestingly enough, Obama’s plan mentions the possibility of using “PROBIOTICS” for solving diseases in animals — but not for humans.
- PROMOTE INNOVATION: Who isn’t for innovation? One of the things Obama’s plan spells out is learning more about the microbiome. Fantastic! The problem is, much of the plan’s innovation is geared not only towards making new Antibiotics, but new VACCINES as well (“increased antibodies“). They make no bones about this fact when they say (via a header) that one of the main goals of the plan is to, “Accelerate Basic and Applied Research and Development for New Antibiotics, Other Therapeutics, and Vaccines.” We’ve already seen where the government is pushing heavily — at the behest of Big Pharma — to have large numbers of VACCINATIONS MANDATED (“Forced Vaccinations”). By the way, their stated goal for accomplishing this is to create two new products in the next five years to replace, “Antibiotics that lose their effectiveness for treating human disease“. Trust me when I tell you that Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness at a far greater rate than two every five years — and some that we are using, we shouldn’t be; regardless of issues with resistance (HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE). And this doesn’t even begin to touch the issue of “SUPERBUGS“.
Oh; we might see some benefit from this latest of Executive Orders. But the reality is, aside from spending tax dollars on things we both should have been doing and claimed to have been doing for a very long time (and have known about for longer than that), Obama’s plan is not going to accomplish much. I mean; for Pete’s sake — they don’t even say anything in this post about the relationship between SUGAR AND INFECTION — a heck of a problem considering our national explosion of DIABETES and METABOLIC SYNDROME.
Obama’s plan says that, “the emergence of drug resistance in bacteria is undermining our ability to treat bacterial infections and perform a range of modern medical procedures“. Really? Using the word “emergence” implies that this is a brand new problem. It’s not. Realizing this means that if you expect more of the same-old-same-old from the government’s “new” plan, then you won’t be disappointed when that’s all you get — especially once you realize that this plan was essentially already in place (see CDC website Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013 and this February’s Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative Costs $264M: A Comprehensive Response).
