Drug-resistant germs on the rise

MARCH 10–WASHINGTON, D.C.–Drug-resistant germs are on the rise in the United States and experts predict a sharp jump in the strains of a dangerous form of strep that can overcome two common antibiotics.

By the summer of 2004, as many as 40 percent of the strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae could be resistant to both penicillin and erythromycin, researchers warn. That form of strep causes thousands of meningitis, sinusitis, ear infections and pneumonia cases every year.

Researchers based at the Harvard School of Public Health studied reports from sites in eight states, measuring how common the drug resistance was in 1996 and how it increased by 1999.

In a paper appearing in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine, researchers say penicillin resistance rose from 21.7 percent of strep strains in 1996 to 26.6 percent in 1999, and for erythromycin it increased from 10.8 percent to 20.2 percent.

The report provides further support for arguments against unnecessary antibiotic use, Marc Lipsitch, one of the researchers, told The Associated Press.

For years, public health experts have warned that overuse of antibiotics often when they are not needed is leading to more and more drug-resistant bacteria. For example, many people demand antibiotics when they have a cold, even though colds are caused by viruses, which are not affected by antibiotics.

Last month the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to require a new warning on antibiotics, pointing out that overusing them makes them less effective.

Doctors must be sure a patient is suffering a bacterial infection, not a virus with similar symptoms, before prescribing antibiotics, the warnings say. The government estimates that half of the 100 million antibiotic prescriptions written in physician offices each year are unnecessary.

The new research “puts it on the doctor’s plate,” said Dr. Donald Low of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “Can we change the future? Yes, there are things we can do, but can we do them quickly enough?”

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