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People should realize that although antibiotics
are needed to control bacterial infections, they
can have broad, undesirable effects. They
can produce long-lasting change in the kinds and
proportions of bacteria not only in the treated
individual, but also in the environment and
in other people. For example, it's been shown
that when one member of a household chronically
takes an antibiotic, such as to treat acne, the
concentration of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
on the skin of family members rises. Similarly,
heavy use of antibiotics in hospitals, day
care centers, and farms (where the drugs are often
given to livestock for non-medicinal purposes)
increases the levels of resistant bacteria.
And international travel has spread antibiotic
resistance without regard to borders.
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Stuart
B. Levy, professor of medicine and of molecular
biology and microbiology, is the Director of the
Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance
at Tufts University School of Medicine and staff
physician at the New England Medical Center. He
is president of the international organization Alliance
for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics and author of
The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying
the Miracle (1992). He is chief scientific officer
of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
