From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Thu Aug 03 2000 - 11:53:35 MDT
altamira wrote:
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> > [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Michael S. Lorrey
> >
> > if this were so, then use of antibiotics on humans would have
> > long ago developed
> > resistant strains.
>
> They have. Why do you think there's such a race to develop new antibiotics?
>
> ALL doctors I talk to have said that resistant
> > strains arise
> > as a result of patients not completing the full regimen of
> > anti-biotics they are
> > prescribed,
>
> Michael, you're making yourself look stupid. While failure to complete the
> full regimen of antibiotics is one factor, it's certainly not the whole
> story. Por favor. Do a little more research. Here's something to get you
> started:
>
> Excerpt: Factors Contributing to the Spread of Resistance
> Three factors are of key importance in the emergence and spread of
> antibiotic resistant bacteria: 1) mutations in common bacterial resistance
> genes that have extended their spectrum of resistance; 2) exchange of
> genetic information among bacteria; and 3) increase in selective pressures
> in hospitals, other institutional settings, and in the community.
>
> http://medicalreporter.health.org/tmr0297/antibiotic0297.html
>From the cited paper:
"Overuse and misuse of antibiotics in hospitals, other institutions, and in the
community
increase selective pressures for resistant bacteria to emerge." In this context,
overuse meaning that it is used too widely, on an indiscriminate basis and that
it is misused, i.e. the full course of treatment is not applied, NOT that too
much is given to specific patients (so says two doctors I know, Dr. Joseph
Cecere and Dr. Robert Kroner, as well as my mother, Karen Lorrey, a former
Medical Technologist,ASPC, and currently Director of Quality and Compliance at
Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital). This statement directly supports what I have
been saying. While there have been mild/minor selective pressures in hospitals
since the 60's among atmospherically and contact communicable diseases, these
were only a small fraction of a percent of all infections until 1995. The reason
these diseases underwent selective pressures in hospitals was NOT because of
antibiotics at all, but because hospital environments are, despite constant
efforts at cleanliness, the area one is most likely to catch an airborne or
contact communicable disease, simply because there are so many sick people
there.
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