MRSA ST398 - Public Enquiry sought
- From: Pat Gardiner <pat.gardiner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:29:05 +0100
Pat's Note: The bent vets will now be really on the run.
The net is closing on them at unbelievable speed.
The government has to act decisively, they have run out of road and
credibility.
http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/press-releases/opinion-former-index/health/mrsa-action-uk-the-threat-from-superbugs-in-our-food-$1235887$1220655.htm
MRSA Action UK - The Threat from Superbugs in our food
Monday, 11 Aug 2008 09:50
The issue of Superbugs in our Hospitals and in our Community has far
reaching consequences for not only today?s generations, but more
importantly for future generations who will have to live with our
inaction on this subject. The ubiquitous use of antibiotics over the
last 60 years has brought us to the position we find ourselves in
today.
There is much hype of the fact that we now have a problem with
antibiotic resistance even to most common infections because of our
over use of these magic drugs in trying to cure the most basic of
complaints. However what has not been published in the same manner is
our over reliance of antibiotic use in the farming industry, primarily
the livestock and poultry industries. Humans only account for 50% of
the total use of antibiotics in the world today, the remaining 50% of
antibiotic use is in the livestock and poultry industries around the
world according to the Department of Health report ?The path of least
resistance? 1998, and this is of a major concern to MRSA Action UK.
Whilst the Government and the Department of Health inform us that
Healthcare Infections are a world wide problem they have said nothing
of the disaster that is slowly creeping up on us with regard to the
problem of the over use of these antibiotics in livestock.
Our Charity has consistently campaigned and raised the issue of the
over use of antibiotics at conferences with healthcare officials and
history has taught us that we ignore the lessons from the past at our
peril. In the 1980?s we had the BSE fiasco where we were informed that
there was little chance of the problem that was affecting cattle being
passed on to humans. How history has shown us just how wrong we can be
with nature, when we have seen the effects this terrible affliction
had on humans in the form of the human variant CJD. We now have a very
similar situation arising with feed stock given to animals that is
heavily dosed with antibiotics and which can transfer itself to humans
therefore building up possible resistance to the common antibiotics
used in humans to fight infections.
We are already beginning to see the mutation of MRSA transferring
itself from pigs to humans and a variant MRSA bacteria appearing
called MRSA (ST398). There are other bacteria that are progressively
building up resistance to the most common antibiotics we have to fight
infections such as (extended-spectrum beta-lactamases) ESBL Ecoli
which is spreading to both farm animals and humans and causes over
30,000 food poisoning episodes in this country alone and over 4000 are
thought to die because of the failure to respond to antibiotic
treatment.
Our Government and the Department of Health is now adopting a policy
of informing our Doctors that they need to be more frugal with the
issuing of antibiotics to the population, and that unless an
antibiotic is needed they should refrain from prescribing them unless
absolutely necessary and our Charity is in agreement with this policy.
We have to preserve the present stock of antibiotics for future
generations and unless we do, we will leave those generations with no
effective means to combat even the simplest of infections, we owe this
to our children in that they inherit a world safer than the one passed
on from our parents.
In contrast, in the farming livestock industry the same pressures
applied to our Doctors to be more frugal with antibiotics have not
been applied to veterinary surgeons and farmers in the UK. Large
quantities of antibiotics are still given to animals as a
precautionary reason and not to fight or combat specific infections in
animals, and they are increasingly being given drugs that are
critically classed as important in human medicine because of our
farming methods.
As a Charity we fully understand that the use of antibiotics in
intensive livestock production is paramount but we feel there needs to
be the same sea change in this industry with the use of antibiotics as
there is now in our medical health service because failure to do so
will leave us with very serious problems in the future.
As a Charity that supports those who have been affected by Healthcare
Infections we are calling on our Government to have, not only a
review, but a public inquiry that will pull together all those who use
antibiotics from the Doctors and Veterinary surgeons to the farming
community but it must also encompass those countries around the world
because failure to do so will have its own consequences as a country
that imports large stocks of meat. Failure to ignore the warnings on
antibiotic use will impact on all of us in the future and leave future
generations a legacy they will not forgive us for.
Derek Butler
Chair
MRSA Action UK
--
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Ministers Strip Councils Authority on Elderly Care/NHS Computers Don't Work Right/ MRSA Under-reported
- Next by Date: MRSA - Pig Progress reports from Holland
- Previous by thread: MRSA - C. Diff - Pigs - PMWS - The Nationals
- Next by thread: MRSA - Pig Progress reports from Holland
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
