Tetracycline

Your article on the use of antibiotics in farm animals ["FDA Sets New Path on Animal Antibiotics," Jan. 9] fell short of presenting a complete picture of this important subject. I am just one person, and I know of four people who are experiencing the nightmare of having contracted an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria. My own son was hospitalized for three weeks with this, landing a medical discharge from the Army. In order to produce meat on the scale that Americans consume it, producers have to give the animals antibiotics.

Your article on the use of antibiotics in farm animals ["FDA Sets New Path on Animal Antibiotics," Jan. 9] fell short of presenting a complete picture of this important subject. I am just one person, and I know of four people who are experiencing the nightmare of having contracted an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria. My own son was hospitalized for three weeks with this, landing a medical discharge from the Army. In order to produce meat on the scale that Americans consume it, producers have to give the animals antibiotics.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted the routine use of a class of antibiotics known as cephalosporins in livestock, it picked an easy target. The agency's move is better than nothing, but nonetheless it is a reminder of the FDA's achingly slow and timid efforts to wean agriculture off the overuse of important medications. Call it a tiptoe forward after a recent giant step in the other direction and a long era of standing in one place. Eighty percent of the antibiotics used in this country are given to chicken, pigs, turkey and cattle, not because the animals are sick but to fatten them and prevent illness from sweeping through crowded pens.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted the routine use of a class of antibiotics known as cephalosporins in livestock, it picked an easy target. The agency's move is better than nothing, but nonetheless it is a reminder of the FDA's achingly slow and timid efforts to wean agriculture off the overuse of important medications. Call it a tiptoe forward after a recent giant step in the other direction and a long era of standing in one place. Eighty percent of the antibiotics used in this country are given to chicken, pigs, turkey and cattle, not because the animals are sick but to fatten them and prevent illness from sweeping through crowded pens.

Only 20% of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are given to people who are sick with bacterial infections, such as ear and urinary tract infections and pneumonia. Most of the penicillin, tetracycline and other antibiotic drugs used in this country are given to livestock that are perfectly healthy. Farmers have been putting these medicines in animal feed since the 1950s. They say the drugs help protect herds from infectious diseases and help animals grow faster. But for at least 40 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been concerned that the widespread practice may be fueling the growth of human pathogens that are no longer vulnerable to doctors' front-line drugs.

When an HIV-infected patient walked into Dr. Daniel Berger's office with a nasty sore on his wrist, the physician suspected the culprit was a bacterium known as MRSA. The test results, however, were unexpected. Yes, this was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but it was unresponsive to two medications that are recommended, mainstay treatments. Berger realized the already-formidable microbe had strengthened its defenses. "I was quite concerned, needless to say," said Berger, who since that incident two years ago has treated several other patients with similar infections.

Tetracycline kills bacteria involved in a host of ailments, including periodontal disease. Now it's being further trained on gum disease--but not as an antibiotic. Tetracycline blocks the action of collagenase, an enzyme implicated in the tissue destruction of periodontal disease, say researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Collagenase breaks down collagen, the connective tissue that forms the framework for skin, bone and gum.

Researchers have solved a medical mystery that has eluded them for hundreds of years, demonstrating that an abundance of abnormal skin proteins causes the blotchy skin condition called rosacea. In a study published Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine's online edition, scientists showed that people with rosacea had too much of an incorrectly processed protein called cathelicidin. The results could aid researchers in designing an effective treatment for the disease affecting 14 million in the U.

Question: Pregnant women sometimes do get sick. Suppose a pregnant woman needs an antibiotic. Is she permitted to have it? Answer: Some antibiotics, including penicillin, appear to be safe for use during pregnancy. However, tetracycline should not be used since it causes tooth discoloration in the baby. sg Q: Exactly what is plastic surgery? Does it have anything to do with plastic materials doctors use?

I suffer from digestive upset when taking antibiotics, and I'd like to counter that with the probiotic bacteria in yogurt. Does taking antibiotics with yogurt affect absorption of antibiotics? It depends to a certain extent on the antibiotic, but many should not be taken within a few hours of yogurt or other calcium-rich foods. That includes antibiotics in the tetracycline family and drugs such as ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin, but not ofloxacin. Fruit juice fortified with calcium also can interfere with antibiotic absorption.

Only 20% of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are given to people who are sick with bacterial infections, such as ear and urinary tract infections and pneumonia. Most of the penicillin, tetracycline and other antibiotic drugs used in this country are given to livestock that are perfectly healthy. Farmers have been putting these medicines in animal feed since the 1950s. They say the drugs help protect herds from infectious diseases and help animals grow faster. But for at least 40 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been concerned that the widespread practice may be fueling the growth of human pathogens that are no longer vulnerable to doctors' front-line drugs.

When an HIV-infected patient walked into Dr. Daniel Berger's office with a nasty sore on his wrist, the physician suspected the culprit was a bacterium known as MRSA. The test results, however, were unexpected. Yes, this was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but it was unresponsive to two medications that are recommended, mainstay treatments. Berger realized the already-formidable microbe had strengthened its defenses. "I was quite concerned, needless to say," said Berger, who since that incident two years ago has treated several other patients with similar infections.

Tetracycline kills bacteria involved in a host of ailments, including periodontal disease. Now it's being further trained on gum disease--but not as an antibiotic. Tetracycline blocks the action of collagenase, an enzyme implicated in the tissue destruction of periodontal disease, say researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Collagenase breaks down collagen, the connective tissue that forms the framework for skin, bone and gum.

Question: Pregnant women sometimes do get sick. Suppose a pregnant woman needs an antibiotic. Is she permitted to have it? Answer: Some antibiotics, including penicillin, appear to be safe for use during pregnancy. However, tetracycline should not be used since it causes tooth discoloration in the baby. sg Q: Exactly what is plastic surgery? Does it have anything to do with plastic materials doctors use?

If you have an outdated Cipro prescription in your medicine cabinet, you might be wondering if you should keep it around just in case the ongoing anthrax scare continues to spread. Cipro isn't considered one of those drugs that can become toxic if it sits in the medicine cabinet too long, although it does weaken with time. Certain other antibiotics, however, such as tetracycline, do break down chemically over time and can make you very sick if ingested, said Dr.

Japanese and European researchers have identified a new strain of Neisseria gonorroeae that is exceptionally resistant to cephalosporins, the last remaining family of antibiotics available to treat the sexually transmitted disease. Although physicians have identified only a handful of infections by the new strain of gonorrhea, called H041, they fear that its ability to grow even in the presence of the cephalosporins may allow it to spread rapidly throughout the world. "This is a large public health problem and the era of untreatable gonorrhea may now have been initiated," the team wrote in their abstract for the report presented Sunday at a Quebec City meeting of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research.