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June 25, 1999
Researchers in Utah are seeing a trend they say could result in the loss
of control over diseases like meningitis, and childhood pneumonia.
Resistance to antibiotic drugs is getting so serious, that one bug is
actually feeding on an antibiotic which once killed it.
The story from Science Specialist Ed Yeates.
Here's a scary scenario:
Nature trains a common bacteria to use its one-time killer antibiotic like
a vitamin pill.
Dr. John Burke, chief of clinical epidemiology at LDS Hospital says, "That's a
real switch, the idea that antibiotics can actually be required for the growth
of certain bacteria."
But the switch is real, happening now with some patients infected with the
common enterococcus bacteria, who take the antibiotic Vancomyacin.
Dr. Burke says, "Bacteria can train themselves to become dependent on
antibiotics for their growth. Take away the antibiotics and the organism stops
growing."
Enterococcus, common in urinary tract infections, is only one example.
The same threat exists with staph infections and strains of
pneumococcus, and streptococcus.
The University of Utah Department of Family and Preventive Medicine has
launched major research into drug resistance, including an educational campaign
for both doctors and consumers. For example, a magnet can be placed on the
refrigerator telling families when an antibiotic is or is not appropriate.
The Utah team is also studying high rates of drug resistant pneumococcus
infections within families living in two rural communities: Price and Delta.
Dr. Burke says universities and others currently meeting with the CDC are
trying to stop overuse of antibiotics which is causing the resistance - without
implementing government controls.
"Some countries have already determined that it's no longer appropriate for
physicians to be allowed to prescribe any antibiotic they wish," Dr. Burke
says.
In those countries antibiotic prescriptions are now subject to review by a
higher authority or governing board.
Dr. Burke and other infectious disease specialists will meet with the
Centers for Disease Control next month.
The agency is developing a
strategy plan, hoping to avert what it considers the number one crisis for the
new century.
