I guess you'll have to use your ray gun...
lesson: never take antibiotics if it can be avoided. most ailments have equally effective non-antibiotic remedies. antibiotics are a great thing, but they are WAY overused nowadays, and this is the kind of thing that will start happening...
Once again, the bacteria are not mutating. It is just that the stronger strains have always been resistant to drugs but previously were so tiny in numbers (and possibly could not as easily compete for food as well as other strains) that our immune system could deal with them. Now, the weaker strains that were vunerable to the antibiotics are all gone and the drug resistant strains are all that is left.
A really anthropomorphic way of saying evolution in action.
This situation will of course get a lot better once the libs kill Big Pharmaceuticals.
I know personally three different people who have had MRSA pnuemonia. I myself am battling pnuemonia that keeps recurring. My husband has had it, my mother inlaw just got out of the hospital with it and now my son has it. But the doctors shrug me off laughing when I mention what a coincidence that all these people are 'catching' (which they tell me that pnuemonia isn't contagious) pnuemonia. Something is up this year.
How about if we don't give taxpayer's dollars to pharmaceutical companies, but remove the multiple layers of red tape and circling bloodthirsty lawyers? Let capitalism work its magic in the medical world just as it does everywhere else.
>>>Some of that Billion dollars given to Africa could be used to help American Pharmecutical companies develop better drugs.>>>
BAH! If we did that, Bono wouldn't feel so good about himself! Do you really want to be responsible for the low self esteem of an aging rocker???
In 1962 Congress passed the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments "to ensure drug efficacy and greater drug safety. For the first time, drug manufacturers are required to prove to FDA the effectiveness of their products before marketing them." (from the FDA website.) This has greatly increased the costs of developing new drugs, and greatly delays the introduction of new drugs on the market, and increased the risks of developing and marketing new drugs. As a result fewer new drugs are developed, and when they are drug consumers have to wait many years to receive their benefits...all due to the scare of Thalidomide, which was never approved for use in the United States anyway.
Millions of Americans have died prematurely or have suffered worse health than they could have. Rather than focus on "safety and efficacy"--legal constructs, pharmaceutical developers, doctors, and drug consumers should be allowed to make choices as to risks and rewards. No drug is perfectly safe, but a physician may decide that the potential benefits of the drug outweigh its potential risks. These are choices that doctors and patients should make, not the FDA.
Antibacterial soaps, deodorants, sanitizers, etc. kill almost EVERYTHING..including the weaker bacteria that help our immune systems become stronger. The weaker bacteria die, and the stronger bacteria survive to reproduce.
The problem is these broad spectrum compounds are NO LONGER restricted to a medical setting. Advertisers have convinced the people that we must be germ-free, and now every house has antibacterial dish detergent, hand sanitizers, and germ killers of every sort. (and that doesn't even include the preservatives that also act like antibacterials.)
The most common household antibacterial ingredient, Triclosan, is actually *Diphenyl Ether*. Both 'ether' and 'phenyl' are alcohols.
I wound up having to learn more about anti-microbials and preservatives in soap and disposable gloves than I ever really wanted to know, because I've suddenly become allergic to them.
Believe me...everyone should educate themselves to what the FDA allows manufacturers to put in what are refereed to as 'personal care' items.
Particularly since the only regulation on the cosmetics industry IS the cosmetics industry!
Here's an place called Skin Deep
And another called What's in the stuff we buy?
This is the for the Household Products Database National Library of Medicine.
As my Doctor recently said.... We're cleaning ourselves to death!
Hopefully the Chinese drug companies can develop and sell us the drugs we need...after our lawyers drive our drug companies out of business...might not be that long.