CDC Warning: Meat and poultry eaters may have antibiotic resistance which can lead to death

CDC Warning: Meat and poultry eaters may have antibiotic resistance which can lead to death

By Nigel Boys

Antibiotic treatment of diseases is becoming less effective among some patients, according to a stern warning issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP).

According to statistics, about 2 million people each year are affected by diseases that are antibiotic resistant and more than 23,000 of them die annually.

Apparently, one of the reasons that infections become resistant to antibiotic treatment is that doctors have been over-prescribing the drugs. Another reason is that some forms of antibiotic are used in farm animals which are later consumed by humans.

The result of this resistance to antibiotic treatment could be that the human race may against start to die from relatively simple diseases as they did years ago, according to the CDCP.

More than 100,000 people died from infections that were transmitted while they were in hospital in 2007, said an estimate from the CDCP. However, it is not known how many of those deaths were the result of drug resistant infections.

The government is in the process of stopping the use of antibiotics in industrial farm animals because it estimates that over 70 percent of antibiotics that are used are for animals and it deems this practice “unnecessary and inappropriate.”

However, some part of the problem with drug resistant infections could lie with the patients themselves. Patients are forcing doctors to prescribe antibiotic drugs for various maladies even though the doctors know that those drugs are ineffective for things like the flu, viruses and colds.

Many doctors prescribe antibiotic drugs simply to put the patient’s mind at ease and not because of the effect they may have on the patient’s illness.

Although sensitive bacteria die when antibiotic drugs are administered to a patient, some antibiotic resistant germs multiply and grow stronger, according to the Missouri Department of Health.

Tufts University, Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts said that some types of bacteria have a natural immunity to antibiotic drugs and others, to stay alive, can genetically mutate at a rapid rate.

One of the drug resistant bacteria, which has no known treatment, is E-Coli, therefore, of the 9,000 hospital contracted infections of this type of bacteria, about 50 percent of the patients die.

Another problem with anti-bacterial drugs is that while they do kill some types of bad bacteria, they also kill some types of good bacteria which may leave the patient in danger of contracting other infections.

Reportedly, one way to restore good bacteria is to eat yogurt. Another method to avoid potential problems is to make sure that you maintain a good personal hygiene standard and make sure your food is clean, safe and fresh.