Antibiotics Should Be In A Special Drug Class | Arthritis Information

Antibiotics Should Be Assigned To A Special Drug Class To Preserve Their Power, Says Alliance For The Prudent Use Of Antibiotics

To preserve their power to treat infections, antibiotics should be assigned to a special drug class, Stuart B. Levy, president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA), the leading, independent global organization dedicated to preserving the power of antibiotics, told a gathering of scientists meeting yesterday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Levy, an internationally recognized authority and professor of molecular biology and microbiology and of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, suggested that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classify antibiotics as "societal drugs" and impose stricter access to them, as it does with narcotics and psychoactive drugs.

"Antibiotics are different from all other drugs," Levy said. "Unlike, for example, drugs administered for heart disease, which affect the treated person and have no impact on anyone else, antibiotics affect the treated individuals, others sharing the environment, as well as the larger community."

According to Levy, antibiotics affect society at large by giving a survival advantage to drug resistant organisms, which then spread to others. He cited a British study which found that if one person was taking an antibiotic for acne, others residing in the same home had 1000 times more multi-drug resistant bacteria on their skin than did members of a household without antibiotic use.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/194604.php

oh WOW.

talk about "sharing" huh?\

thanks for the article.