World Health Organization Warns Against 'Just In
Case' Antibiotic Use for Anthrax
In a Reuters Health, October 31, 2001 release is a warning from the
United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) against taking
antibiotics without any need. In the wake of recent Anthrax reports
more people have been taking the popular antibiotic Cipro without any real
need for it. The warning is against the blanket use of antibiotics
as a defense against anthrax, saying it could do more harm than good.
David Heymann, the head of the WHO communicable diseases program said
antibiotics should be prescribed only when there was reasonable cause to
think a person had been in contact with anthrax. In an interview at
the Geneva-based United Nations agency, Heymann said, "If you are not
at risk, you do yourselves and others a disservice by demanding
antibiotics". He continued, "The use of antibiotics as
'just in case' protection by people alarmed by reports that anthrax had
been found in letters could leave them more susceptible to other unrelated
infections.
The problem is that bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics very
quickly and can then be passed from one person to another just like a
virus. A major WHO concern has been the declining potency of some
antibiotics such as penicillin, resulting from widespread overuse.
For example, penicillin, can no longer be used against gonorrhea because
strains of the sexually transmitted disease have evolved that are immune
to the antibiotic.
Heymann concluded, "One has to remember there is a much greater
chance of catching pneumonia than of contracting anthrax."
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