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by Claire Soares
Farmers who use antibiotics to fatten up livestock and poultry are
aggravating the problem because microbes on animals build up
defenses against the drugs, then jump across the food chain and attack
human immune systems, WHO said.
The world health body said tuberculosis strains in several countries had
become resistant to two of the most effective drugs, and some
antimalarial medicines had become practically useless as parasites
adapted their defenses.
"Antibiotics were one of the most significant discoveries of the 20th
century," WHO Director Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.
"Unless we act to protect these medical miracles, we could be heading
for a post-antibiotic age in which many medical and surgical advances
could be undermined by the risk of incurable infection."
The WHO said industry data showed pharmaceutical companies had
spent more than $17 billion over the past five years on developing
medicines to treat infectious diseases. "Unless drug resistance is
tackled quickly, much of that investment could be lost," the
organization said.
WHO urged patients, doctors, hospitals, farmers, and legislators to take
action to contain the threat. The body wants farmers to stop using
antibiotics simply to make their animals grow and recommends that
when animals are ill, their owners should have a prescription for any
necessary drugs.
Human patients should avoid putting pressure on doctors to give them
antibiotics, the report said. Doctors should prescribe drugs specifically
to match a person's illness rather than automatically giving them the
newest or best-known medication. And hospitals should develop more
stringent monitoring systems, it added.
"This strategy is designed to promote the wiser use of drugs so that
resistance is minimized and effective treatments can continue to be
used for generations to come," said David Heymann, director for
communicable diseases.
Copyright 2001 — Reuters
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