Originally published November 3 2011
Fail: New superbug drugs cause 500 percent increase in infections
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Governments around the world have been trying to work with the pharmaceutical industry to come up with (conventional) new ways to tackle the growing "superbug" problem. But an experimental new drug treatment regime touted as a potential solution for superbugs has been exposed as a complete failure, as those who receive it are five times more likely to develop serious infections than those who are treated the old way.
Professor David Neal from the University of Cambridge and his colleagues at the school's Addenbrooke Hospital evaluated 709 prostate cancer patients who were undergoing diagnosis surgery for their conditions. One group received the typical ciprofloxacin drug treatment, while the other received an experimental combination of co-amoxiclav and gentamicin, which are two types of antibiotics.
Published in the British Journal of Urology, their study revealed that patients treated with co-amoxiclav and gentamicin have a 500 percent increased risk of developing serious infective complications compared to patients given the typical drug treatment.
While only 2.4 percent of the 454 patients in the ciprofloxacin group developed infections, nearly 13 percent of patients in the co-amoxiclav / gentamicin group ended up developing infections -- and nearly five percent from the latter group ended up back in the hospital with severe cases of sepsis or septic shock.
"Any alteration to existing departmental antibiotic policies should be linked to strong clinical evidence," commented Prof. Neal concerning the findings. "[S]uch changes may potentially result in significant ill health and potential harm, as well as the financial burden of treating new complications."
The experimental switch was prompted by new UK government guidelines which purported that ciprofloxacin treatments were spurring increases in Clostridium difficile infections. While this is true, at least in part, the government's unfounded "solution" is an embarrassing indictment of what happens when the drug industry is entrusted with finding fixes to the problems it played a role in creating.
Overprescribing and overuse of antibiotics like fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, clindamycin, and penicillins among the general population has been demonstrated as one of the primary causes of superbug proliferation (http://www.naturalnews.com/026969_antibiotic...). The overuse of antibiotics in agriculture to make livestock grow more quickly is another primary cause (http://www.naturalnews.com/antibiotic.html).
Sources for this article include:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-20...
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