Antibiotics - The Decline of the Former Miracle Drugs

The Miracle is Over

Once hailed as miracle drugs 100 years ago, today antibiotics are proving to be anything but. Medical experts are placing the blame for the extremely rapid evolutionary rate seen in micro-organisms on the overuse of antibiotics. Viruses and bacteria have been exposed to antibiotics for so long that they have now become immune to the once miraculous penicillin or amoxicillin. Antibiotics also cause intense side effects in the patient such as watery diarrhea, nausea and yeast infections in women.

Although humans won one round of the arms race against illness when penicillin was introduced in 1928, bacteria and viruses are winning the latest round. According to a Reuters report, Europe alone has had to spend over 900 million Euros a year fighting illnesses that have become resistant to antibiotics ('Antibiotic Overuse Could Threaten Medicine;' 10/11/2009.) Before penicillin, humans used herbs and food in order to help fight illness. The time may have come to start using ancient treatments once again.

The Rise of the Superbug

Antibiotics became so revered by both doctors and patients in the 1950s that by the 1970s, they were being prescribed for nearly every infection, no matter how mild. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDPC), 60% of patients were unaware of which antibiotics were lethal and which were not. For example, antibiotics cannot kill influenza viruses, but most individuals are not aware of same. Doctors questioned for the Reuters article claimed that patients demanded antibiotics and it was easier to give a prescription than to argue.

Bacteria that cannot be killed by current antibiotics have been dubbed 'superbugs.' The best known superbug is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA.) Ten years ago, Staphylococcus aureus could be killed with methicillin. But since viruses reproduce so rapidly with a new generation every few days, it is now completely immune to methicillin. Only the newer generation of antibiotics, such as Vancomycin, seems to have an effect.

But the newest generations of superbugs are already adapting to Vancomycin, according to reports from India ('Emergence of a Vancomycin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus from a tertiary care hospital from the northern part of India;' Hare Krishna Tawari, et al; 'BNC Infectious Diseases'; 2006). This stain is now being called VRSA instead of MRSA. Although given a different name, VRSA presents the same problem - how to destroy the bacteria without harming or killing the patient?

Antibiotics Kill Indiscriminately

Antibiotics do not know what bacteria they are supposed to kill, so they kill all the bacteria they come into contact with - even if those bacteria are essential for a patient's health. For example, the intestinal tract uses certain bacteria to help individuals to digest their food. Without these good bacteria, food simply passes through the digestive tract without extracting the nutrients. In the 1990s, doctors recommended that any patient about to undergo a round of antibiotics either start taking acidophilus capsules or consuming yogurt with live acidophilus cultures - also known as probiotic yogurt.

This addressed the severe diarrhea and cramping that plagued some patients, but the medical community began noticing that one round of antibiotics was not sufficient to kill infections. The patient was then switched to another antibiotic. If that did not work, then the patient was put on a third type of antibiotic. By then, the patient needed hospitalization. Some troublesome bacteria had been exposed to over 150 antibiotics since 1928. They had acclimated to their enemy. But other bacteria, such as those which reside in the human digestive tract, had not adapted and continued to be destroyed.

The pharmaceutical industry's answer is to continue to manufacture new types of antibiotics. But so far they have not been able to create bacteria-specific antibiotics. It takes many years for a new drug to be tested and then gain approval from a country's medicinal drug authority. What should doctors and patients do in the meantime?

Care in the Superbug Era

Simply exposing the infection to an antibiotic begins the countdown for when the bacteria will learn to become resistant to that same antibiotic. Bacteria are not confined to just one human body. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread among the population through breath, blood or bodily fluids. Meanwhile, they keep reproducing.

The Mayo Clinic has some recommendations as to how to use the antibiotics that are currently available - use them sparingly and only for certain infections, such as a chronic ear infection. Antibiotics should only be provided to adults, unless there does not seem to be another way to treat a child with an infection. Patients are urged not to use antibiotics of others or to take any pills remaining from a previous infection. Furthermore, if provided an antibiotic, take the entire dose unless side effects are severe.

The Mayo Clinic also urges that prevention is the best weapon against not only superbugs, but any other bacteria-borne illness. Hands should be washed after using the lavatory. Wounds - even small ones - should be cleaned and bandaged. Individuals diagnosed with an infection should not go to work or school to help stop the illness from spreading. Individuals who do not eat a balanced diet should take multivitamin supplements to aid the immune system.

Manuka Honey

One promising weapon in the fight against superbugs is derived from manuka honey (honey that is made from the tea tree, also known as manuka.) Manuka bushes or 'trees' grow best in Australia and New Zealand, so manuka honey may be difficult to find in certain parts of the world. But manuka honey has been shown to weaken MRSA bacteria, according to promising tests conducted at the University of Wales in Cardiff.

National Geographic and the University of Wales speculate that manuka honey contains an ideal combination of sugar and antibiotics. The University of Wales also notes that MRSA can still thrive in a sugar syrup, but not in a manuka honey solution. It can be placed directly upon a wound, provided that it is medicinal-grade or sterilized manuka honey, otherwise it will not work.

Although the decline of antibiotics seems daunting, there are always alternatives, such as manuka honey and enhanced hygiene to help individuals steer clear of infections.