Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S.

[n2doc]

By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: November 5, 2010

Worried about an impending public health crisis, government officials are considering offering financial incentives to the pharmaceutical industry, like tax breaks and patent extensions, to spur the development of vitally needed antibiotics.

While the proposals are still nascent, they have taken on more urgency as bacteria steadily become resistant to virtually all existing drugs at the same time that a considerable number of pharmaceutical giants have abandoned this field in search of more lucrative medicines. The number of new antibiotics in development is “distressingly low,” Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said at a news conference last month. The world’s weakening arsenal against “superbugs” has prompted scientists to warn that everyday infections could again become a major cause of death just as they were before the advent of penicillin around 1940.

“For these infections, we’re back to dancing around a bubbling cauldron while rubbing two chicken bones together,” said Dr. Brad Spellberg, an infectious disease specialist at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

For example, scientists have become alarmed by the spread from India of a newly discovered mutation called NDM-1, which renders certain germs like E. coli invulnerable to nearly all modern antibiotics. About 100,000 Americans a year are killed by infections acquired in hospitals, many resistant to multiple antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the best known superbug, now kills more Americans each year than AIDS.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/health/policy/06germ.html?src=me&ref=general

[Warpy]

1. Antibiotics actually cure disease, so they're not cost effective

like lifestyle and cardiac drugs that need to be taken for a lifetime. They'd much rather pour R&D money into a drug that grows eyelashes (albeit with hideous side effects) than a drug someone takes for 2 weeks and is cured and might never take again.

R&D in the next generation of antibacterial and antiviral drugs really does need to be subsidized, both by NIH grants that usually turn up the breakthroughs and at the drug company level, when they're tested and brought to market.

[AC_Mem]

2. Viruses and Bacteria are getting stronger

And they are running out of antibiotics that are effective. Personally, I choose not to use them AT ALL. And we (my family and I) rarely get sick. I use therapeutic grade essential oils every day - I believe it is The Creator's answer to human's health support.

There are numerous studies out there on the effectiveness of essential oils against bacteria AND viruses (antibiotics basically have no effect against viruses). Problem is, nature cannot be patented, so it cannot be profited from, therefore, the powers that be debunk them. Oregano, thyme, lavender, basil, cinnamon, clove, frankincense, rosemary, eucalyptus, lemongrass - these are just a few off the top of my head that are the primary essential oils I diffuse, apply and inhale when I want to support my health (I have probably 150+ eo's and share my knowledge with others).

Because each season is different, soil minerals are different per crop, rain amounts different, etc., no two particular batches of essential oils have the same molecular makeup, and it is that DIFFERENCE that confuses the pathogens so they cannot build a resistance to them. Scientists keep trying to figure out what molecule "works", and pull that out so that they can duplicate it into a drug, but that will never work (in my opinion).

Do I think there is a place for antibiotics and western medicine? Of course, but I will say this, I have witnessed ALLOT and I mean allot of people improve with oils who could not be helped with antibiotics, and antibiotics aren't that effective anymore. Of course, America is the last to understand this - other countries have been using plant oils for ages.

Yet another reason I'm a liberal - we have to protect the rain forest and get the chemicals out of what we consume. The rain forest, plants and making better food choices hold the keys to our future health (in my opinion) in so many ways.

http://www.pubmed.gov - go there and search for "viruses and essential oils" for studies.

I'll get off my soapbox now :) thanks for indulging me!

Peace Luv and Health,
Annette

[Warpy]

3. No, they're just evolving to counter the environmental

stress produced by antibiotics. Resistant strains are growing quickly, mostly because people here and especially in the third world are not taking the full dose of antibiotics, stopping them as soon as they feel better so they can save the pills for the next time. Unfortunately, they'll have a lot of bugs immune to that drug the next time. Overusing them in children with viral illnesses has also added to the problem.

The bugs aren't any stronger or nastier than they always were. They just can't be killed by any of the arsenal of drugs that have done such a good job since the 1940s.