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Tag: antibiotic resistance

  • Antibiotic Overuse Could Create Global Health Crisis, Shows Study

    For years now, the medical community, including the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have been warning that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise. The problem is becoming serious as antibiotic use has become widespread and commonplace, with bacteria evolving resistances at an ever-greater rate.

    A new study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine has now shown that while human overuse of antibiotics is a large contributor to the problem, the use of antibiotics for livestock and agriculture is overwhelmingly the cause of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

    The study found that 80% of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are for agricultural and aquacultural uses. The drugs are commonly fed or injected into livestock in order to increase food production.

    “It’s about increasing the efficiency of food so you can reduce the amount of grain you feed the cattle,” said Aidan Hollis, co-author of the study and an economica professor at the University of Calgary. “It’s about giving antibiotics to baby chicks because it reduces the likelihood that they’re going to get sick when you cram them together in unsanitary conditions.”

    The study’s authors warn, however, that a continued, unchecked increase in the number of antibiotic immune bacteria could lead to a global health crisis. Hollis suggests in the paper that a tax on antibiotic use for non-human purposes could help curb the problem, believing that a ban on agricultural use of antibiotics may be hard to implement.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took up the issue earlier this month, announcing its plan to phase out the use of some antibiotics (the ones most important for humans) in food animals. The FDA’s plan calls for pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily re-label their antibiotics to prevent unnecessary use on farms.

    “These methods are obviously profitable to the farmers, but that doesn’t mean it’s generating a huge benefit,” said Hollis. “In fact, the profitability is usually quite marginal.

    “The real value of antibiotics is saving people from dying. Everything else is trivial.”

  • Almost All Chicken Breasts Shown to Contain Harmful Bacteria

    Chicken is one of the most widely eaten meats in the U.S. and around the world, but it could also be one of the most dangerous.

    Consumer Reports this week revealed the results of its recent tests of meat and poultry, showing that nearly all of the U.S. chicken breasts it tested were contaminated with some sort of harmful bacteria.

    Of the 316 raw chicken breasts examined in the survey, 97% of them were found to have harmful bacteria. Nearly 80% of the breasts had enterococcus, 65% of them had E.coli, 43% had campylobacter, over 13% had klebsiella pneumonia, nearly 11% had salmonella, and 9% had staphylococcus detected on them.

    In addition to the harmful bacteria, the report shows that chicken farming may be significantly be contributing to the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Half of the chicken breasts tested in the study were found to have at least one strain of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Most of the resistances seen in the chicken were related to antibiotics used in chicken farming.

    The FDA has recently announced a plan to heavily restrict the use of antibiotics in food animals, especially the practice of using antibiotics to promote animal growth.

    “Our tests show consumers who buy chicken breast at their local grocery stores are very likely to get a sample that is contaminated and likely to get a bug that is multidrug resistant. When people get sick from resistant bacteria, treatment may be getting harder to find,” said Urvashi Rangan, executive director of Food Safety and Sustainability at Consumer Reports. “Our survey also shows that consumers are making buying decisions based on label claims that they believe are offering them additional value when that is not in fact the case. The marketplace clearly needs to change to meet consumer expectations.”

  • FDA to Tackle Antibiotic Use in Food Animals

    The practice of using antibiotics in farm animals has been debated for decades now. Farms will often put antimicrobials into the feed or water of animals bound for the dinner table to enable faster growth using less feed. Critics have argued that these antibiotics could have a dangerous effect on humans who eat the animals, and the U.S. government is now getting involved.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a plan to phase out the use of “medically important” antimicrobial drugs in food animals. The plan would end the use of such drugs for animal food production and tightly control them for veterinary uses.

    Specifically, the FDA’s plan calls for animal pharmaceutical companies to revise the use conditions of their products on product labels. In addition, the FDA would like to end the over-the-counter status of such drugs, meaning veterinarian approval would be needed for disease treatment with the drugs. The FDA is calling for pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily implement these changes, and is giving companies three years to transition their products to comply.

    “Implementing this strategy is an important step forward in addressing antimicrobial resistance,” said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the FDA. “The FDA is leveraging the cooperation of the pharmaceutical industry to voluntarily make these changes because we believe this approach is the fastest way to achieve our goal. Based on our outreach, we have every reason to believe that animal pharmaceutical companies will support us in this effort.”

    The medically important drugs targeted by the plan are those also used to treat humans. Researchers in recent years have seen a rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The phenomenon is caused primarily by the overuse of antibiotics, which creates pressure for resistant bacteria to evolve and thrive. The CDC estimated this year that at least 23,000 American each year die from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

  • CDC Recommends Limits For Antibiotic Use in Children

    The U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week issued a new report and guidance urging physicians to cut back on antibiotic use in children.

    Specifically, the CDC has called on doctors to cut back on prescribing antibiotics for upper respiratory conditions such as ear infections, sinus infections, and sore throats. Many of these infections are caused by viruses, meaning that antibiotics would not help. The agency estimates that upwards of 10 million children in the U.S. could be at risk for side effects from unnecessary antibiotics.

    In addition to the added dangers to children, the CDC is once again warning the public about the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

    “Our medicine cabinet is nearly empty of antibiotics to treat some infections,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. “If doctors prescribe antibiotics carefully and patients take them as prescribed we can preserve these lifesaving drugs and avoid entering a post-antibiotic era.”

    When exposed to antibiotics, bacteria is able evolve resistances to the medications. Overprescribing antibiotics could be helping these resistant bacteria strains thrive. The CDC warned back in September that up to 50% of antibiotic use is not needed or mis-prescribed. The agency estimates that 23,000 Americans die each year to infections that are resistant to antibiotics.

    “Many people have the misconception that since antibiotics are commonly used that they are harmless,” said Dr. Lauri Hicks, coauthor of the CDC’s new report. “Taking antibiotics when you have a virus can do more harm than good.”

    The CDC’s recommendations include steps that doctors can take to rule out viral infections and ensure that antibiotics are needed. The agency is also urging doctors to weigh the benefits of antibiotics against possible side effects (including promoting resistance) when prescribing the medications and to prescribe only the exact dose needed over the shortest period of time possible.

  • Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria on the Rise, Says CDC

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week released a report on antibiotic-resistant bacteria – and the news doesn’t look good. The CDC’s data shows that antibiotic resistance is on the rise in the U.S. The agency estimates that around two million Americans each year are infected with such germs, and that “at least” 23,000 of them die from the infections.

    “Antibiotic resistance is rising for many different pathogens that are threats to health,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. “If we don’t act now, our medicine cabinet will be empty and we won’t have the antibiotics we need to save lives.”

    Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are infections that don’t respond to normal antibiotics. Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics simply by being exposed to them. The frequency with which bacteria are exposed to antibiotics can affect how quickly they are able to evolve a resistance.

    The CDC is warning that up to 50% of all antibiotic use in unneeded or “not prescribed appropriately.” In addition, the overuse of antibiotics on livestock is a concern for the agency. According to the CDC, improving antibiotic use (by using them only when medically necessary) is the most important factor for slowing the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

    “Every time antibiotics are used in any setting, bacteria evolve by developing resistance,” said Dr. Steve Solomon, M.D., director of CDC’s Office of Antimicrobial Resistance. “This process can happen with alarming speed. These drugs are a precious, limited resource – the more we use antibiotics today, the less likely we are to have effective antibiotics tomorrow.”

    In addition to the yearly deaths antibiotic-resistant bacteria causes in the U.S., the CDC has also compiled statistics on the monetary costs. The agency estimates that $20 billion in health care costs can be attributed to antibiotic resistance and that as much as $35 billion in lost productivity can be connected to such infections.