Apparently, the Food and Drug Administration considers bovine health - and profits of the drug and cattle industries - more important than saving human lives.
The Washington Post reports that the FDA is prepared to approve an antibiotic drug for use in treating cattle for a common respiratory disease. Such widespread use of the drug would promote antibiotic resistance, say experts, making it and similar drugs ineffective in treating human diseases. The drug, cefquinome, "belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defenses against several serious human infections," including an antibiotic that is the "only effective treatment for serious infections in cancer patients." [WaPo] And, as fewer antibiotics remain effective, the U.S. becomes increasingly vulnerable to biological disaster.
The FDA's plan to approve the drug is contrary to the recommendations of its scientific advisory committee, which voted against InterVet Inc.'s request to sell the drug for use in cattle with bovine respiratory disease. The disease is common among animals kept in crowded, stressful conditions [Washington Post]. But, rather than recommend changes to inhumane industry practices that spread disease in cattle, the FDA has elected to risk leaving no effective cure for deadly human diseases.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, the Infectious Diseases Society and Keep Antibiotics Working all provided statements to the FDA opposing approval of cefquinome, and more than three hundred organizations have endorsed legislation to ban routine, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock.
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control show that antibiotic resistance already is having serious consequences.
Nearly 2 million patients in the United States get an infection in the hospital each year.
About 90,000 of those patients die each year as a result of their infection, up from 13,300 patient deaths in 1992. More than 70 percent of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics most commonly used to treat them. People infected with antibiotic-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer hospital stays and require treatment with second- or third-choice medicines that may be less effective, more toxic, and more expensive.
But, the deadly consequences of antibiotic resistance have not been persuasive to decision makers at George W. Bush's FDA. The agency tasked with protecting public health instead caters to industry's desire for profits. It's another cruel blow for Americans already struggling to pay for prescriptions. Soon, some cures may be unavailable at any price.
