When the doctor prescribes an antibiotic for an infection, we expect it to work. But what if it doesn't? And what if a second kind is ineffective?
The issue of antibiotic resistance hit close to home for our editorial page editor when her strong, healthy, young-adult son needed not one, not two, but three different kinds of antibiotics before he was free from a severe bronchial infection. This is not an isolated instance. According to the National Academies of Science, as many as 40 percent of strains of pneumococci in some parts of the United States are now partly or completely resistant to penicillin and a number of other antibiotics.
A major cause is the overuse of antibiotics by poultry, beef and pork producers to speed growth and overcompensate for overcrowded conditions. In fact, 70 percent of all antibiotics and related drugs used in this country are routinely fed to these animals being raised for human consumption.
Fortunately, a coalition of concerned organizations, Keep Antibiotics Working, can claim some success in countering this threat to human health. It notes that in January, USA Today reported that four of the nation's top 10 poultry producers, Tyson Foods, Gold Kist, Perdue Farms and Foster Farms, say they have "stopped using antibiotics for growth promotion" in chicken for human consumption.
This is also in response to pressure from large-scale poultry purchasers, including McDonald's, that have crafted policies requiring that the chickens they buy be raised with fewer antibiotics. Progress, yes; but other poultry producers and beef and pork producers must follow suit.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, is on top of this issue. She has co-sponsored a bipartisan bill (S 742, HR 2562) that would phase out the use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives but not restrict their use for treating sick animals. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act also would authorize the collection of data on antibiotic use, an effective tool to ensure accountability. If enacted, the United States would be following New Zealand, Denmark and the European Union in this effort.
Congress should waste no time preventing this "unacceptable risk to the public health" (FDA).Times-Record (ME)
