- WASHINGTON (Reuters Health)
- Most "nontherapeutic" use in livestock of antibiotics commonly
prescribed to humans would be banned under a bill introduced by US House
Democrats Wednesday.
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- The "Preservation of Antibiotics for Human Treatment
Act of 2002" would phase out over 2 years the use of eight classes
of drugs now commonly employed to promote growth and development in farm
animals.
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- The banned drugs, which include penicillin, tetracycline
and other popular human medicines, could still be used to treat sick animals,
and could continue to be used for nontherapeutic purposes if drugmakers
can demonstrate to the US Food and Drug Administration that use of the
product does not contribute to the development of drug-resistant strains
of bacteria.
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- The bill would also ban all uses of fluoroquinolones,
the class of drugs that includes the now-famous antibiotic Cipro, in poultry.
Several poultry manufacturers have already voluntarily curtailed their
use of such drugs, which have been linked to resistant strains of bacteria
that cause food poisoning.
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- Sponsors of the bill say all current evidence suggests
that such routine use of antibiotics not to treat specific ailments is
a major cause of the rise in antibiotic-resistant diseases.
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- "Every time bacteria are exposed to antibiotics,
resistant strains emerge and pose a renewed threat to human health,"
said Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the bill's sponsor and the ranking member
of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, at a news conference.
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- Unless overuse of antibiotics is not curbed soon, said
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the nation and the world "will find
ourselves with a host of deadly infectious diseases for which we have no
treatment." Slaughter, a microbiologist, wrote her doctoral thesis
on antibiotic resistance.
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- Public health groups also lent their support to the effort.
"The more you use antibiotics, the more you lose them," said
Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Agreed Dr. Mohammad
Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association, "it
is time for Congress to make the health of consumers a priority and stop
the reckless practice of pumping healthy animals full of antibiotics."
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- Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) is expected to introduce a
companion measure in that chamber in the coming weeks, the House members
said, and plans to hold hearings on the subject.
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