Antibiotics are medicines that are widely used to fight infections. Too widely, it seems.
The more that antibiotics are prescribed, the less effective those chemical substances become. They can lose their beneficial powers when germs have enough time to develop resistance to them.
One such "super bug" is MRSA, the bacteria technically named methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It was blamed recently for the headline-making death of a student in Brooklyn, which understandably caused alarm on Staten Island and elsewhere.
No vaccine can prevent MRSA. Though often hard to treat, the infection is still curable through a variety of medicines and procedures. However, the price can be daunting: Up to $40,000 or more.
For years, MRSA has been a scourge of patients in hospitals and nursing homes. In the 21st century, it has emerged as a threat to otherwise healthy people in the general public. It's now estimated that about 85 percent of MRSA infections arise in health-care sites; the rest are thought to develop most often in the outside community in places where people come into close contact, such as schools, gyms and locker rooms.
According to a government study, MRSA struck over 90,000 people in the United States in 2005, contributing to the deaths of nearly 19,000 of them -- more than killed during that year by AIDS. Eight percent of the deaths were from non-hospital infections.
Most of the cases of MRSA involve a skin eruption that is easy to treat. The best prevention is carefully washing your hands and keeping wounds covered. When the germs get into the blood stream or internal organs, they can cause serious illness or death.
Which can become the worst-cast scenario when antibiotics don't work. Unfortunately, they are losing their effectiveness faster than drug companies are coming up with more of them.
One thing Congress must do now is provide incentives for drug-makers to step up the research and development of antibiotics.
Beyond that, a leading breeding ground for medicine-resistant bacteria is down on the farm. About 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs used in this country actually go into feed additives to promote the health and growth of hogs, chickens and beef cattle.
Now is the time for Congress to pass legislation under consideration to test U.S. livestock and farm workers for MRSA. Furthermore, our legislators on Capitol Hill should act on a bill to phase out the indiscriminate non-theraputic use of antibiotics in farm animals.
Without prevention, the cure is problematic.Staten Island Advance
