Vaccines To Replace Redundant Antibiotics Is A Disaster Waiting To Happen

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Our regular readers will know that antibiotics don't treat viruses, which cause most respiratory tract infections. However, according to the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA), a quarter of people wrongly believe antibiotics work on coughs, colds and flu.

When I read this, I couldn't help but wonder: Where did this skewed message originate?

The 'cure all' that's more of a 'harm all'

When Nobel Prize winner Sir Alexander Fleming, discovered the antibiotic substance penicillin (from the mould Penicillium notatum) in 1928, he probably never imagined that, nearly 100 years later, antibiotics would cause such a storm in a tea cup.

At the time of their discovery, antibiotics were a tremendous breakthrough for modern medicine. They were revered as one of the most efficacious life-saving drugs in the world, especially when it came to the treatment of bacterial infections. However, they're now becoming a thorn in their own flesh, so to speak, as the world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era.

This is the result of the over-prescription of antibiotics, which has seen the rise of antibiotic resistant bugs like MRSA — one of the most feared words in hospitals. Consequently, the mainstream argues that many common infections will no longer have a 'cure' and, once again, they will kill unabated. The latest concern is NDM-1. It is resistant to one of the more powerful groups of drugs, carbapenem antibiotics, and has been detected in many UK patients.

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The irony is that the mainstream is washing their hands of any guilt in this matter. Speaking at the European Antibiotics Awareness Day (they have a day for that?!), the HPA's Dr Cliodna McNulty said that self-medicating was unsafe and could fuel drug resistance.

Self-medication?

Perhaps Dr McNulty is unaware of the fact that patients can only self-medicate on prescription medicine if they were given a prescription by their doctors in the first place... After all, it's not like antibiotics are available over the counter. So, in the 'blame chain' doctors are sitting at the top!

However, the HPA doesn't stop there. They also said that health professionals must learn to resist demands from patients for treatments they know have little or no effect on coughs and colds.

The HPA found 97 per cent of patients said that when they had asked their GP or nurse for an antibiotic, they were prescribed one... But of course! With only having a 15 minute consultation, doctors have merely become prescription writers... they hardly have the time to give patients a proper examination... Apart from that, it's my experience that pushing prescription drugs is what the mainstream is all about!

Vaccines can solve the problem

Since the mainstream and Big Pharma is so wrapped up in their prescription drug push, the only resolution for them regarding the antibiotic resistance debacle is to develop new drugs.

However, microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington, has said: "There are no new antibiotics coming along and we've run out of easy targets."

One of the reasons for this is cost. To take a drug from its development phase to when it's ready to hit the market, costs around £700m. Colin McKay, from the European Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said: "It is very difficult to make economically viable models for antibiotics."

McKay added that a lot of people take heart medication or anti-depressants for a very long period of time, which makes it easier to turn profits on these drugs, but antibiotics that work, are unlikely to be used for more than a couple of weeks... Obviously, not a stocking-filler for Big Pharma.

So, it's no surprise that Big Pharma's solution is to develop vaccines against superbugs, which patients can take before going into hospital for surgery. In 2008, the then chief medical officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, said vaccines for MRSA and C. difficile should be ready within a decade.

Goodness forbid! The horror! Safety concerns around vaccines have already sparked massive controversy... Just last week we reported on the hideous side effects of the cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix.

If you ask me, the root of the problem is not just the over-prescription of antibiotics but also a serious lack of good infection control in hospitals. Infection from antibiotic resistant bugs, like MRSA, can certainly be prevented by applying rigorous hygiene and infection control in hospitals. This way patients will not pass bugs on so easily.

When will Big Pharma and the mainstream ever learn... Their 'cure all' approach with pharmaceuticals tends to always blow up in their faces and creates far bigger problems in the long run.

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Sources:

Myth that antibiotics cure coughs and colds still rife, published online 18.11.11, bbc.co.uk

The drugs don't work - so what will?, published online 09.11.11, bbc.co.uk