2008 Woodie Awards
Attack of the Titan Microbes!
Catherine Conley
Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Opinions
I recently read an interesting article on washingtonpost.com. It described a new strain of staph infection which was resistant to first-line antibiotics. Apparently the germ is very dangerous, causing 19,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone. The bacteria has also caused over 94,000 different serious infections, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nothing is more frightening in a film when the villain returns from what you thought was death and nothing is scarier in real life either. Stories just like the one that I read at the Washington Post website are becoming far too common. There are dozens and dozens of accounts of bacteria and viruses we thought were "taken care of" returning with a new vengeance. Also mentioned in the article I read was a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections, that has become immune to every approved antibiotic for children. There have even been reports of death by ear infections which, after being grossly over-treated, took over the host.
Dying of an ear infection seems a little extreme and rare, but is tragic nonetheless. Unfortunately, scenarios like these are often brought on by overmedicating. Our society seems to have something of a plastic bubble complex. We want to be germ-free all day, every day. This attitude simply isn't healthy. The same way that bacteria and viruses can build up an immunity to medicine, our bodies can build up an immunity to disease.
This problem is especially a concern with regard to children. Paranoid parents are scrubbing their children every time they get ahold of them, and by doing this they are not allowing the very fragile immune systems of our younger generation to become stronger and keep them healthier. Children are being rushed off to the doctor over minor colds and cuts when they should just be left to heal naturally.
"Watchful waiting," or avoiding the use of antibacterial and antiviral drugs, is more strongly encouraged by doctors these days as they see parents going germ crazy. In countries like the Netherlands watchful waiting has been an accepted practice since about 1990. There are many critics, of course, just like with anything else, but many agree that rushing to get the latest drugs for any illness is not the best path to take.
It's true, our medical technology has come a long way since the discovery of microbes and the microscopic world. Our life-spans are longer and the rate of death is most definitely smaller. However, we seem to be traveling in a circular pattern. The more drugs we create to fight microbes, the more they fight back. We went through about a hundred-year period of satisfaction with our antimicrobial drugs and gradually the germs have begun to resist our advances.
To solve arising problems like the new strain of staph infection and and the new strain of ear infection bacteria, experts say that new antibiotics should be developed and that the unnecessary use of available drugs should be drastically reduced. They also say that doctors should be on the lookout for these super microbes so that they can be treated appropriately with the remaining adequate drugs available.
So, have a little more faith in your immune system and let it do its thing. It doesn't always need help.
Nothing is more frightening in a film when the villain returns from what you thought was death and nothing is scarier in real life either. Stories just like the one that I read at the Washington Post website are becoming far too common. There are dozens and dozens of accounts of bacteria and viruses we thought were "taken care of" returning with a new vengeance. Also mentioned in the article I read was a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections, that has become immune to every approved antibiotic for children. There have even been reports of death by ear infections which, after being grossly over-treated, took over the host.
Dying of an ear infection seems a little extreme and rare, but is tragic nonetheless. Unfortunately, scenarios like these are often brought on by overmedicating. Our society seems to have something of a plastic bubble complex. We want to be germ-free all day, every day. This attitude simply isn't healthy. The same way that bacteria and viruses can build up an immunity to medicine, our bodies can build up an immunity to disease.
This problem is especially a concern with regard to children. Paranoid parents are scrubbing their children every time they get ahold of them, and by doing this they are not allowing the very fragile immune systems of our younger generation to become stronger and keep them healthier. Children are being rushed off to the doctor over minor colds and cuts when they should just be left to heal naturally.
"Watchful waiting," or avoiding the use of antibacterial and antiviral drugs, is more strongly encouraged by doctors these days as they see parents going germ crazy. In countries like the Netherlands watchful waiting has been an accepted practice since about 1990. There are many critics, of course, just like with anything else, but many agree that rushing to get the latest drugs for any illness is not the best path to take.
It's true, our medical technology has come a long way since the discovery of microbes and the microscopic world. Our life-spans are longer and the rate of death is most definitely smaller. However, we seem to be traveling in a circular pattern. The more drugs we create to fight microbes, the more they fight back. We went through about a hundred-year period of satisfaction with our antimicrobial drugs and gradually the germs have begun to resist our advances.
To solve arising problems like the new strain of staph infection and and the new strain of ear infection bacteria, experts say that new antibiotics should be developed and that the unnecessary use of available drugs should be drastically reduced. They also say that doctors should be on the lookout for these super microbes so that they can be treated appropriately with the remaining adequate drugs available.
So, have a little more faith in your immune system and let it do its thing. It doesn't always need help.
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