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FDA designates Cipro as anthrax antidote
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (August 31, 2000 4:13 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - If bioterrorists ever attack the United States with anthrax, the antibiotic Cipro will be the first line of treatment for civilians who breathe the deadly bacteria, the government decided Thursday.
The Food and Drug Administration said Bayer Corp.'s popular antibiotic will help protect people exposed to inhaled anthrax from becoming infected and dying - if they take it quickly enough.
Cipro, known chemically as ciprofloxacin, has been sold for 13 years to treat a variety of infections, and many experts long believed it would fight anthrax, too.
But FDA's formal approval of Cipro Thursday makes it the nation's first medication specifically designated for use after bioterrorism, a sign federal health officials have begun taking the threat seriously.
Public health experts have warned for several years that the nation is unprepared for the growing risk of bioterrorism, the release of deadly bacteria or viruses. Germs are the ultimate sneak attack: Unlike with bombings or chemical spills, no one would know an attack had happened until sick people began arriving at hospitals.
It's not a theoretical risk. In 1985, a cult sickened 750 Oregonians by tainting salad bars with the food-poisoning germ salmonella. Experts say Japanese doomsday cultists tried but failed to release botulism toxin and anthrax in Tokyo in 1995, before they released nerve gas into a subway, killing 12 people and sickening thousands.
Anthrax is a spore-forming bacteria found in soil. When it is aerosolized and inhaled, it becomes incredibly deadly. It is of particular concern because it has been manufactured as a biological weapon by at least three nations, Russia, Iraq and Iran. Just a few pounds of spores released into air conditioning units or sprayed over a crowd could infect thousands.
Eighty percent of inhaled anthrax victims die within days if they go untreated. To be most effective, Cipro should be taken within hours of anthrax exposure, FDA antibiotic chief Gary Chikami said. Once symptoms - fever, chills, rash and respiratory congestion - appear, little can be done.
The FDA's approval "is a welcome step forward" because for the first time it sets the proper Cipro dose for both adults and children, said Michael Osterholm of the Infection Control Advisory Network, who advises the government on bioterrorism.
But Osterholm complained the nation still spends far too little readying for bioterrorism, compared with billions spent against missile attacks and other threats now considered less likely thanks to technology.
The Department of Health and Human Services is spending $278 million this fiscal year on bioterrorism preparedness. That includes stockpiling enough Cipro for 5 million treatments. Osterholm would not reveal how much already is stockpiled, but said, "we've got a ways to go."
There was no way to test Cipro's effectiveness in people suffering inhaled anthrax, so the FDA based its approval largely on a study of monkeys, who suffer anthrax in almost the same way that people do. Nine out of 10 untreated monkeys died after inhaling anthrax; only one out of nine Cipro-treated monkeys died.
Adults would take 500 milligrams of Cipro orally twice a day for 60 days after anthrax exposure; children would take it for as long but at doses proportional to their weight.
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Cipro does nothing for sinus infections (mine). I believe it is a penicillyn variation.
This is a coincidence (?) coming a few days after a story broke on Mike Reagan's radio show that BIOPORT, the only company our DOD chose to make the Anthrax vaccine, lost the recipe for said vaccine...other strange happenings. Read Joyce Riley's allegations, etc. here:Link to further gov. hijinks
Cipro belongs to the class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. It is most commonly used to treat pseudomonas and staphylococcus infections.
No,
Cipro is powefull stuff
It can really burn a hole in your stomache
Personally, I prefer grapefruit seed extract to Amoxycillin. I had an infected tooth abcess 6 weeks ago which was causing blood poisoning. 10 days of 250 mg. x3 of Amoxycillin barely slowed it down. 3 days later the infection was again spreading when I got the GSE in the mail. Two days later the infection was completely gone. I even got rid of some athlete's foot I had.
Now, I'm not saying I'd be willing to put it up against anthrax, but imo there's some definite anti-biotic properties to GSE which can at least kick Amoxycillin's backside.
Do veterinarians use it on animals?
Send money to the politicians and get rich.
GSE is real. I have no idea how effective it might or might not be against anthrax or other life-threatening diseases, but in a severe test of antibiotic efficacy, it cured my aging dachshund's dragon-breath when all else failed! Not kidding. Seems to help prevent Montezuma's Revenge when traveling, too. It's cheap, so I carry it in my briefcase when I'm on the road. Would be really cool if it worked against anthrax.
Never heard of that one.
THANKS
Who knows, it might work on anthrax. I was was bitten by a tarantula two weeks ago while working on my truck and although it took 10 days for the infection to go away the GSE seems to have limited it and kept it to pea-sized areas under the bites.
How did you take the GSE? Pill or liquid? Ingested or applied to the wound? ...Just curious.
Pill. 250mg. x3/day. The liquid probably would have worked better. I could tell the GSE was likely working 'cause there were small, clear and painless welts below the infections. Kinda strange but when the welts went the infection was gone. It just took a couple of days beyond that for it to heal.
doesn't do anything for me. my fave antibiotic is Vantin(sp)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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