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Bill Riedel
Jan 11, 06 - 8:09 PM |
CALLING ALL DOCTORS, JOURNALISTS AND POLITICIANS.
Dear Phage Therapy Colleagues: I have come to the conclusion that the scientific community has failed when it comes to superbugs and phage therapy. In 2006 I am going to try and reach as many journalists, doctors and politicians as possoble: CALLING ALL DOCTORS, JOURNALISTS AND POLITICIANS. TO PHAGE OR NOT TO PHAGE LET PATIENTS DECIDE! “Among the most worrisome of these superbugs is MRSA, or methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, a germ once found primarily in hospitals. But it's popping up so often outside of health care settings that it is, ‘arguably, a true pandemic’” - ( http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2005-12-18-superbugs-scientists_x.htm ) During the first six years of this century as many as 72,000 Canadian patients may have experienced premature deaths from infections due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and/or superbugs. Many of these patients could have had their “funerals delayed” by having their infections cured had they known about bacteriophage therapy and if they had had the money and time to travel to Georgia, Europe ( http://www.phagetherapycenter.com/ or http://www.phageinternational.com ) or Poland ( http://surfer.iitd.pan.wroc.pl/phages/ASM0408.html ). Scientific information on phage therapy is widely available as even a search with Google Scholar for “bacteriophage therapy” or “phage therapy” will yield 9,080 and 14,600 references respectively. A letter dealing with phage therapy dated March 08, 2005 signed by the federal Health Minister states: “any physician, who feels that this type of therapy could be of benefit to a particular patient, can request authorization for use via the Special Access Programme”. In view of the patient risk due to antibiotic failure, it is obvious that any discussion of bacterial antibiotic-resistance which does not include consideration of phage therapy is medically and scientifically incomplete and/or worse intentionally or intellectually dishonest. It is clear that the antibiotic-resistance superbug phenomenon is a human-created, regulatory/scientific misadventure due solely to massive abuse of antibiotics since their discovery as even in 1945 it was obvious that when natural pathogens are exposed to natural antibiotics they will undergo natural selection and acquire resistance. It can be reasonably argued that any scientist, health professional and perhaps even politicians as well as health policy wonks working on the antibiotic-resistance superbug issue or treating superbug infections “ought to know” that phage therapy is a currently available and practised treatment option and patients should at least be provided with adequate information so they can make an informed decision as to whether they want to undergo this treatment option. While phage will not likely replace antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, they do represent a lifeline for individuals with infections where antibiotic therapy has failed and letting citizens die in the name of hubris is surely not good public health policy. There is adequate scientific evidence for careful oral and external applications of appropriate phages to help reduce the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains. Compassionate use of appropriate phages seems warranted in cases where bacteria resistant against all available antibiotics are causing life-threatening illness. A recent bureaucratic suggestion that it might take ten years of reinventing-the-wheel type research to mapleleaf phage therapy seems cruel as this could mean that another 120,000 Canadians could die of superbug infections before any patients will be treated in Canada. “Too many regulatory-scientific misadventures. It’s a time to be humble! It’s a time to apologize!” |
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michelle
Feb 7th, 2006 - 9:13 PM |
Re: CALLING ALL DOCTORS, JOURNALISTS AND POLITICIANS.
I am an author and feature writer for LA Based Freedom Communications (we own over 200 media outlets) I am 26 w/ MRSA and Psuedomonus for two months now in a wound. I have speant over 30 days between two hospitals only to learn that I am resistant to antibiotics and the infection is spreading-- would love to write about it, but desparetly need to find treatment. My family is weary of me going into Georgia alone. Can anyone help? Sincerely, a sick writer in distress 850-625-8958 HELP ME PLEASE |
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