Posted on 10/14/2001 6:36:56 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Don't join the Cipro bandwagon
Fear of the unknown, heightened by an FBI warning that unspecified terrorist strikes could happen in the United States and abroad, has had a predictable but undesirable result: Many have gone to the Internet where they are trying to obtain large quantities of Cipro, a potentially dangerous antibiotic useful in the treatment of anthrax.
Now is the time for cooler heads to prevail. Internet pharmacies are selling countless thousands of prescriptions of Ciprofloxacin, marketed under the brand name Cipro by West Haven, Conn.-based, Bayer AG. And to the dismay of health authorities, some Internet sites are playing to this fear by pushing sales of the drug. While some online sites require a doctor's prescription, others are getting around this by offering online doctors' "consultations" for a fee.
Health officials cite a number of reasons frightened consumers should not attempt to stockpile this drug. Not the least among these is their concern that if there were an attack in which many people were exposed to anthrax, there might be a shortage of Cipro to treat those victims.
A story by Knight Ridder newspapers quotes a number of public health officials on why they urge the populace to steer clear of the Cipro bandwagon: Among those reasons:
Cipro is not a benign drug. There are potential risks to adults that include diarrhea, nausea or sun sensitivity.
There is no evidence that Cipro offers any immunity to anthrax. It was approved by the FDA for use after exposure to anthrax spores.
Those who take Cipro run the risk of developing resistance to the drug, which would not help them if they actually need it at a later time.
Doctors are concerned parents will give the drug to their offspring. Cipro is not recommended for use by children. The possibility of bioterrorism frightens all of us. We'd have to be fools for it not to. But buying a prescription drug without your physician's blessing is folly - and probably dangerous. Let's all stay calm.
-Phil Dodson/For the editorial board
Son, we had a choice after you were exposed to anthrax. We could bury a 3'8" corpse or we could raise you to be a fine young 3'8" man. We think we made the right choice.
Now lets go out and find you a 3'2" woman!
Big expert here. The bug can develop a resistance to Cipro, but the person taking it can't.
Poor fellow forgot to change the filters.
These are the side effects of just about every anitbiotic.
My question is, if Cipro will literally stunt the growth of a child, what do you use to treat children that have been exposed? I read somewhere that an alternative antibiotic is doxycycline. Anybody know if children can take this without long term side effects?
Do not touch the hot stove! Do not touch the hot stove.
So it's okay if the bug develops resistance? Anyone with common sense today knows that you don't abuse antibiotics. All those doing so at this time are putting everyone at risk.
Today at the start of Fox News Sunday their medical expert whose name I forget said that it could cause permanent tooth discoloration in children. So you should be careful with children and pregnant women. He didn't say anything else about that one.
Which, I guess, is better than being a 3'8" adult, which is, in turn, better than being dead. See post #6 from mfulstone above.
And if you take it and you weren't exposed can you explain how the Anthrax can become resistant to something it hasn't even come in contact with?
If Anthrax were to be resistant to Cipro than it would be from the process of weaponization not because too many people had Cipro in their bathrooms.
This article is just contrarian crap that treats the American public like dolts.
First Cong. Chris Shays says don't buy gas masks the govt. will take care of you. Then they admit they have gas masks on the floor of the house.
Now everyone says "don't get Cipro it's a bad idea". How much do you want to wager they have Cipro on the floor of the house? Hell you Congresscritter probably has a pocketfull of them.
Gimmee a break. They act like we will all just start tossing them down like Flintstone Chewables.
A friend and colleague, about 47, had a urinary-tract infection. The doctor started him on Cipro on Friday.
He is one of the smartest, most capable and brilliant engineering minds I have ever met.
By Sunday his wife called 911. To make it short, he ended up in the "psych" ward of the local hospital.
I visited him on Monday. He was in bed, apparently asleep, mumbling incoherently. His arms and legs in constant motion.
I spoke gently: "Charlie, it's [Boris]."
Eyes fluttered but did not open. Writhing increased, as did mumbling.
Several minutes later his wife and mother came in. They told me that Charlie, a devout Christian, a lay minister and volunteer, one of the gentlest persons I know, and one who had never used even a mild profanity in my hearing--had cursed his mother like a sailor over the weekend. A lifelong non-smoker, he had demanded cigarettes.
The sound of their voices "awakened him". I noted that one eye did not track with the other one. A palsied shaking in his hands, tics on his face.
He recognized everyone.
When spoken to, he would respond: the first several words made sense, and then the rest were completely insane.
They took him off Cipro. By Wednesday, he was "85%" back to normal. Next Monday he was back at work, working with the same skill and abilities.
True story. What shocked me is how rapidly one of the best of us could be reduced to a mumbling, incoherent madman.
Fortunately his recoverey appears to be complete. I'm told that something like 0.01% react to Cipro in this way; it is more prevalent among the aged.
Cautionary tale.
--Boris
When it was announced that all 700 AMI employees and their families were to be put on Cipro, the statement was also made (Fox News' Orlando Salinas? MSNBC? Can't remember...) that children and pregnant women were being given amoxicillin rather than Cipro.
One thing proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, watching all these experts lately on teevee, there sure a lot of overpaid governmental experts who get on teevee, who are ninnies, and who are completely for statism, the supremacy of government and the quasi governmental bodies like the AMA, and that they are at best only marginally competent to actually do their jobs. Like, let's take bets on whether or not these government doctors and public health officials have or have not an antibiotic stash for themselves and family right now? And have or have not everything from gas masks to other protective gear?
This is just like the government buffoons like sweinstein and shoomer and kennedy-and yes, republicans as well, like guiliani and pataki, or our new seekrit police homeland security uberboss ridge- who decry self protection for rank and file taxpayers, while packing heat or having machine gun armed bodyguards for themselves. Double speak. They can go away and go pound sand, as in "bite me, liars".
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