Research & Technical Articles Antibiotics: The End of an Era? by Dr. Glenn S. Rothfeld, M.D. Reports published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveal there are 58 percent more cases of infectious disease this year than in 1990. The trend is dramatically upward, and the best scientific brains in the world tell us that it is going to get worse before it gets better. This month Massachusetts, my home state, had its third case of the "flesh-eating bacteria" — all in children. Now, this is still a very rare condition. But what makes this scary is that the "evil flesh-eating bacteria" is none other than the common streptococcus that gives us strep throats and skin infections. It seems that something, (in these cases chicken pox) made the body's resistance so low that the strep overwhelmed the child's system before antibiotics could do anything. Most of us, who are 50 and younger, grew up thinking that antibiotics were invincible. When we were sick, we got them and the sickness went away. When nothing else worked, stronger antibiotics were given: by mouth, on the skin, in the rear end, intravenously — stronger and stronger until the bad bugs were conquered. So what's going on now? Ear infections are on the rise, urinary infections are on the rise, sinus infections are on the rise. Women are plagued by recurrent yeast infections that won't go away with creams and pills. There is more than a 50% increase in antibiotic prescriptions given to children, under the age of 3, than a few years ago. What's changed? And scarier still — if antibiotics are so invincible, why are deaths from infectious disease increasing in this country? Why, despite stronger and broader-spectrum antibiotics (and by the way, much more expensive ones) are new resistant strains of bacteria popping up each year? H. influenza, a bacterium that causes ear infections and meningitis, and can be fatal in children, had an almost doubling of resistance to antibiotics in the past 15 years. > Antibiotics continued Home | Product Line | Endorsements | FAQs | Research | Order Products VITAL PRODUX™ 44 Mine Rd. Suite 2, PMB 209 Stafford, Virginia  22554  USA 540-286-2400 – FAX: 540-752-4765 E-mail: info@VitalProdux.com Copyright © 1996-2003, VTI, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission. Vital Produx™ is a trademark of VTI, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.