Multi-drug-resistant strains of infectious diseases: Viv and Caz have always done their bit

Viv and Caz have always done their bit to help microbes to develop drug resistance.

Every sniffle or sneeze or whatever, Viv would have son James to the doctor to exhibit him and to obtain a remedy. The doctor pointedly remarked to her once about James's having been reared on antibiotics (or did he specify penicillin? I don't remember; it was a long time ago.) His sarcasm did not deter the indefatigable Viv, the caring mother.

And Caz can never waste a cold by allowing it to go unreported. A few months ago she rang me to say she was so ill with a cold and cough she was going to have to stay in bed for a few days. When, a few days later, she was feeling well enough to get up again I was shocked to learn later that instead of resting for a few days more and giving herself a chance to get properly better, she had immediately dragged herself off to the doctor's 'to get a prescription for antibiotics'! - This is a woman who knows that antibiotics do not work for viral infections, which most colds are, and has, like the rest of us, heard many times about the growing and very serious problem of drug-resistant strains of microbes! She just doesn't ever seem to relate that knowledge to her own particular case...

Why do so many people feel they have to go to the doctor if they or their child is ill? For millions of years our ancestors survived without doctors and without antibiotics. Surely most illnesses are self-limiting? Surely taking an active infection along to a waiting room of other patients and to the doctor in his/her surgery is exposing other people to needless risk of infection?

Should you avoid using products containing the antibacterial chemical triclosan?

I think I'll do my best to give it a miss after reading this WebMD article. Mind you, I do routinely try very hard to avoid unnecessary pharmaceutical drugs and iffy chemicals and I deplore the way they are used ever more widely and inappropriately.

GPs are being warned yet again to prescribe fewer antibiotics.

BBC News reports that GPs are once again being warned to prescribe fewer antibiotics. "The European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control has warned if trends continue it will make it harder for hospitals to carry out operations. The UK has seen rates of antibiotic resistance rise in recent years. For example, rates of E. coli infections showing signs of resistance have trebled to 12% since the turn of the century."

The phenomenon of diseases becoming resistant to the drugs used to fight them has been known since the 1950s. (See this interesting library archived report Crofton J. The MRC randomized trial of streptomycin and its legacy) Despite this, GPs have routinely, recklessly and unashamedly continued to over-prescribe antibiotics, in many cases quite inappropriately, thereby compromising the recovery chances of very ill patients, their usual excuse being that the patient insisted on having antibiotics.

We need sanctions to be taken against these doctors who are putting so many people's lives and health at risk. - Sanctions would be more effective than a 'warning'.

Patients should not to ask their GPs for antibiotics to treat coughs and colds, a Government campaign warns.

Patients should not ask GPs for antibiotics for colds and flu
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Diseases are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics and over-prescribing has been linked to the development of "superbugs" that fail to respond to treatment.

The Government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has launched a new campaign to drive down antibiotic use."

You can boost your immune system by cutting down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

A fit teenager, Shaun Jones, died when he suffered a suspected allergic reaction after taking acne medication for the first time, it has emerged.

Talented rugby player dies after 'reaction to acne medication'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"An inquest into the death of talented rugby player Shaun Jones, 14, of Rhydyfelin, Pontypridd, south Wales, has been opened and adjourned.

Shaun's father Graeme Jones said: "He was popular with the girls and had a couple of spots, so the doctor gave him some antibiotic acne tablets. A lot of his friends are taking them.

"It was the first time he'd taken them and he developed breathing difficulties. We called 999 and he went to hospital – but it was too late. The doctors couldn't save him.""

What a tragedy for a 14 year old to lose his life in this way! - And, in my opinion, how deplorable! - We read that he had "a couple of spots" and that "a lot of his friends" are taking the tablets. - To prescribe antibiotic tablets for "a couple of spots"! - We repeatedly read that the prescribing of antibiotics should be restricted because of increasing problems of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics and then there is nothing with which to treat more serious infections. - In my opinion, if Shaun was indeed treated with antibiotics for "a couple of spots", he shouldn't have been. And if it is correct that "a lot of his friends" are too, then this is reprehensible, reckless prescribing.

You may say to me that acne can cause great emotional distress, especially to young people, and I would agree with you. - But I also have an effective, completely safe, drug-free therapy to recommend for reducing acne. Avoid eating salt and salty food. - This does work.

See Sodium in foods

Associated health conditions

Anti-bacterial soap and 'superbugs'

Anti-bacterial soap 'helps superbugs' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Expensive anti-bacterial washes are no better at cleaning hands than ordinary soap and may actually encourage superbugs, scientists have warned.

A team in America has carried out the first known comprehensive analysis of whether anti-bacterial soap works better than plain soap.

Allison Aiello of the University of Michigan School of Public Health and her team found that washing hands with an anti-bacterial soap was no more effective in preventing infectious illness than plain soap and did not clear dangerous bugs such as E. coli.

They found that because of the way triclosan, the main active ingredient in many antibacterial soaps, reacts in the cells, it may cause some bacteria to become resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as amoxicillin.

Resistance to common anti-biotics is the key feature of superbugs, such as MRSA, which kill around 5,000 people in hospital every year. The team found that some strains of E. coli developed drug resistance when exposed to triclosan soap."