Digging Ourselves Out of a Hole

March 16, 2010

I was reading an article by NY Times reporter, Kristoff, of whom I have

read many of his other writings and I find him to be very interesting and

factual. Kristoff has received 2 Nobel prizes for his writing and goes to the

orient frequently to buy back girls who have been sold in bondage for sex. He

puts up his own money to buy them and to help them start a small business so

they can help support their families, which is why they were sold into slavery

in the first place - because of their extreme poverty. We have all read stories

of the sex slave trades, where it abounds in Thailand and this is where he

focuses on most of the time. Sometimes they give up the struggle to make it on

their own and they go back to their masters, but this does not deter him. He

goes back again and again to rescue these children.

According to Kristoff, we are in danger of slipping back into a world in which

we are defenseless against bacterial infections. This is how it started. Farms

feed low dose antibiotics-laced feed to hogs that swap genes and can jump or

morph to microbes that can infect legions of hospitals, locker rooms and homes.

Congress has refused to curb agriculture's addiction to antibiotics. It gets

worse.

Inflammation that can penetrate the colon can be fatal. Seventy percent of all

antibiotics are fed to cattle. Cheaper meat takes a huge toll on human lives.

Kristoff says we are brewing some perfect storms. This terribleis a bacteria

for which we have no defenses for and can be picked up from person to person, or

object to person. Dr. Brad Spellberg has just written a book about

ESBL.E.coli, and acinetobacter KPC Klebsiella. It may be well worth anyone's

read. There is one microbiologist in congress who has 104 delegates to join her

in her fight to stop farms from feeding antibiotics to their animals. If you

are so inclined, you may want to write to your congressman, since this pertains

to all of us and voice your opinion about the overuse of antibiotics.

In addition, we have the advice of Dr. J. Blaser, chairman of the

department of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, and a

former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America who agrees that

agricultural use of these antibiotics produces cheaper meat, but in the end, we

will pay a heavier price toll in human health and life. I remember when I was

in the hospital with c-difficile and I can tell you it literally scared the hell

out of me, I even thought I was coming home in a box. I might not be so lucky

next time, as the doctors told me it can re-occur, as the antibiotics are

quickly losing their grip on disease. We can't depend on the next new drug.

dkristof/index.html

FYI,

Lottie Duthu

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