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IP: Cipro, other antibiotics overuse much more dangerous than anthrax
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:22:23 -0400
http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2D000082833oct17
Cure May Be Health HazardMany doctors bend to pressure from patients who want antibiotics after anthrax scares. Misuse could raise the dangers of resistance.
By CHARLES ORNSTEIN TIMES HEALTH WRITER October 17 2001Anthrax anxiety has spawned a massive public health experiment--one that is unplanned, uncontrolled and perhaps unstoppable.
Never before have so many healthy people been given private stashes of antibiotics to use at their whim.
The trouble, say medical experts, is that indiscriminate prescription of Cipro and other powerful antibiotics could prove horribly counterproductive. It could ultimately render these last-defense drugs helpless against serious bacterial infections, allowing them to flourish and spread to others. Even those who don't take Cipro could develop infections resistant to it.
But in a nation with powerful faith in the ability of drugs to treat any ill, patients are besieging doctors with requests for Cipro and other powerful just-in-case antibiotics. Unsolicited e-mails from online pharmacies fan their fears.
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