On Jul 13, 2006, at 2:01 AM, Shireen Gonzaga wrote:

>  A physician responded to me privately, saying that this was an  
> unnecessary use of antibiotics that contributes to the growing  
> problem of antibiotics-resistant bacteria. (I suggested he share  
> his concerns with this list so people can hear his argument and  
> decide for themselves. But he didn't.)

He responded to me privately again ... he can't post to the list so  
he asked me to post his comments, they're appended below. He  
requested that his name not be used.

Correction: I misunderstood his credentials. He's not a physician,  
he's a chemist.

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Hi all,

I've been urged to post my concerns to the list about Lyme Disease  
and the prescribing/taking of antibiotics to "cure" it.

As some of you may or may not know, there is a problem with bacterial  
resistance to antibiotics.  The best known example of this is MRSA,  
or multiply resistant staphylococcus aureus.  It started off occuring  
in mostly nursing homes and the like, and has spread to hospitals.   
What has happened is that we have become overly reliant on  
antibiotics since they were found to be wonderful against bacteria.   
However, because they were overprescribed and/or not used correctly,  
ie a patient wouldn't take all of his prescribed amount of pills, or  
a doctor would prescribe an antibiotic for anything, the bacteria  
were able to mutate their proteins and acquire resistance to almost  
all known antibiotics, including vancomycin (bacteria are able to  
hydrolyze the antibiotic before the antibiotic can act against the  
bacteria, thus making the antibiotic ineffective).  Vancomycin used  
to be the last line of defense, but now most bacteria are resistant  
to that.

In 2002, five members of the St. Louis Rams had cases of MRSA, and  
just this past year, their color commentator on radio, Jack Snow, a  
former receiver with the team when it played in Los Angeles, died of  
MRSA.

What does this have to do with Lyme Disease, you may ask?  Well,  
since Lyme Disease usually has no symptoms early, does one want to  
take an antibiotic unnecessarily, knowing that you may be  
contributing to bacteria acquiring resistance to another antibiotic,  
and knowing that their is a chance you may NOT get Lyme Disease?  Put  
another way, does one's own wanting to protect themself benefit  
society?  In this case, I think not, as by taking antibiotics which  
be unneccessary, you are just contributing to the problem.

I spent several months researching how bacteria become resistant to  
antibiotics and how the problem has become alarming.  I even wrote a  
grant proposal to get money from the government to do research into  
developing novel antibiotics, so I feel that I know what I am talking  
about.

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