Study: Antibiotic Resistance Growing

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Study: Antibiotic Resistance Growing

By BRIGITTE GREENBERG=

Associated Press Writer=

http://www.nutriteam.com/antib2.htm

 

Jet-setting Americans who eat chicken and meat overseas are bringing

back resistance to certain antibiotics used to treat stomach upset and other

bacterial illnesses, according to a study.

 

The study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, is

the first to link Americans' growing resistance to antibiotics primarily to

foreign travel. Until now, scientists believed resistance was growing

largely because doctors were overprescribing antibiotics.

 

Resistance to the class of antibiotics called quinolones has been

reported in people in Europe and Asia because of the widespread use of

antibiotics in poultry and other livestock there, but the problem had not

been well-documented in the United States. The study also attributed the

problem in part to the growing use of antibiotics in chickens in the United

States. The Food and Drug Administration approved the practice in 1995.

 

``There is definitely a public health problem with using quinolones in

poultry, and we need to take a hard look at that,'' said the study's lead

author, Kirk E. Smith, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Health

Department.

 

Smith said the study should prompt the FDA to adopt more stringent

guidelines for the use of antibiotics in food animals in this country. But

he said solving the problem ``is going to take a

very well-coordinated international effort.''

 

A spokesman for the Washington-based Animal Health Institute, which

represents producers of health products used in food animals, said

antibiotics are used sparingly on domestic livestock _ at most 3 percent of

poultry _ and only when prescribed by a veterinarian.

 

What's more, he said, it's possible people are being exposed to

antibiotics through other means besides chicken while overseas, like water,

for example.

 

``What we don't know is the relative level of risk from contaminated

water, animal use, too many prescriptions. We need to have some

connection,'' said spokesman John Keeling.

 

Here's how researchers believe the problem goes from animals to

humans:

 

Chickens and other livestock are given antibiotics in feed and

drinking water to ward off infections and spur growth. A corkscrew-shaped

type of bacteria that normally lives in the

intestines of the animal becomes resistant to the antibiotics over time.

 

Even after animals go to meat-processing plants, some meat can remain

contaminated with the resistant bacteria. Humans swallow the bacteria if the

meat is undercooked or contaminates other foods during meal preparation.

 

The bacteria bring on gastroenteritis _ that is, diarrhea, stomach

cramps, fever and malaise. Doctors try to treat the illness with

antibiotics, but the bacteria have already built up

resistance, so it's tougher to get rid of.

 

The latest research examined 4,953 cases of bacterial infection among

Minnesota residents between 1992 and 1998. The scientists found that the

proportion of cases resistant to antibiotic

treatment increased from 1.3 percent in 1992 to 10.2 percent in 1998.

 

Patients answered a standardized survey that included questions about

antibiotic use, foods eaten, contact with animals and their travels. The

scientists attributed 75 percent of the cases to

foreign travel, especially to Mexico and especially in winter.

 

In an accompanying editorial, Henrik C. Wegener of the Danish Zoonosis

Center said physicians and veterinarians should be careful not to

overprescribe antibiotics.

 

``Increasing foreign travel and the internationalization of the food

trade make the use of antibiotics in food production a public health issue

of global dimensions,'' Wegener said.