I think the development of drug resistance in pathogens began to be noticed in the 1950s, and tuberculosis, for instance, could no longer be treated with only one antibiotic drug and so multiple drug therapy became the norm for this illness. Unfortunately, as doctors came more and more to rely on antibiotics to deal with infectious diseases, many of them became recklessly profligate in prescribing them, even for very minor illnesses and even for viral infections for which antibiotics are useless. They usually claimed and continue to claim that patients 'demand' them and that they are forced to accede to their demands but that is clearly nonsense.
Thus it is that very serious illnesses now are often difficult to treat because they are resistant to the 'usual' broad spectrum antibiotics, and drug companies try to come up with new drugs that can be used instead - until the medical profession by its cavalier prescribing habits makes the new drugs also ineffective because the microbes have developed resistance to them too.
This seems very likely to happen with Tamiflu, don't you think? - Or am I wrong? - It's being given out in the UK for the small proportion of genuine swine flu and larger proportion of self-diagnosed sniffles and coughs, and possibly an even larger proportion to opportunists who have reported non-existent symptoms in order to stock up on the Tamiflu or take it on holiday with them or whatever, because of the over-hyped and ludicrous telephone reporting system that in practice allows many people who do not have flu to get the Tamiflu. - Who decided on this system? - The drug company that makes Tamiflu? - Or somebody in the government who is in the pocket of the drug company? - Or just some half-wits in the Department of Health who either don't know or don't care either about the huge cost to the taxpayer/NHS of these millions of drug doses or that Tamiflu-resistant pathogens are likely to develop?
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One of the many health benefits of cutting down on salt is that it boosts your immune system.
And one of the many harmful consequences of dieting/slimming is that it lowers your resistance to infection.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Risk of Tamiflu-Resistant Viruses?
Posted by Willow at 9:56 am
Labels: antibiotics, drug-resistant viruses, NHS, Swine Flu, Tamiflu
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