Antibiotics for people, not animals - LA Times

So far this year, more than 300 people have gotten sick from bacteria called Salmonellaheidelberg. Almost three-quarters of them live in California.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that chicken produced in three Central California processing facilities is the "likely source of this outbreak" and that the bacteria are "resistant to several commonly prescribed antibiotics."The CDC estimates that for every reported salmonella infection, there are about 29 more unreported cases, bringing the potential toll to more than 9,000 victims. About 42% of the patients who reported their illness have been hospitalized, an uncommonly high rate that indicates this bug is more virulent than usual. According to the CDC, drug resistance "may be associated with an increased risk of hospitalization or possible treatment failure in infected individuals."Yet on a food industry website, an associate professor of food policy at Iowa State University downplayed the risks. "The occurrence of some resistance is not concerning," he said, "as virtually every bacteria is resistant to some type of antibiotic."Resistance may be ubiquitous, but it hasn't always been this way. It's a new normal that industrial farming practices helped create. In fact, the CDC, the Food and Drug Administrationand the World Health Organization, among others, consider widespread antibiotic resistance a cause for grave concern.Forty years of scientific investigation demonstrate that using...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs