If there is an apocalypse coming, it's this one, and capitalism will be to blame.
MDR TB stands for Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. I just learned there is now also XDR (extremely drug resistant) and TDR (total drug resistant). Just to give you an idea, the map below shows in yellow all affected regions - not joking. If you want to read what the boxes say about each area, click the "bigger map" link.
Bigger map
MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Below you will see a prevalence map from 2006 and a graph of prevalence change in the US from 1993-2005. The page these images came from has a lot of good information.
First off, this is not a hypothetical conspiracy theory about evil pharmaceuticals.
This is a true horror story of the world we live in.
Antibiotics were one of the first miracles of pharmaceuticals. Penicillin was isolated from bread mold and wha-bam! We think we've got the bugs beat. But bacteria is alive, and living things evolve. If you are one of those on the fence about evolution, let me enlighten you to the process.
When you take antibiotics the bacteria in your body begin to be killed. If you stop taking the antibiotics before all the bad bacteria (and most likely all your good bacteria along with it) has died, the remaining bacteria in your body will begin to reproduce again, but this time it is resistant to the drug you just used to treat it. Bacteria learn, grow and evolve very quickly. So you go back to the doctor because you are sick again, only this time the drug doesn't work. You need a different one. This is why your doctor will always tell you to finish and round of antibiotics you are given.
So, we have sick people running around with drug-resistant bacteria and it begins to spread.
Now, I hope there is not a voice in the back of your head saying, "Well this is America, we have great medicine, smart doctors, and a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry! Surely this can't affect me."
If you are thinking something along those line, I hate to be the one to tell you this; Western medicine DOES NOT CARE about you. That is, unless you are a big bag of money. We don't have health care, we have sick care. My Naturopath told me once, "People go to the doctor when they are sick and come to me when they want to get healthy." Moving on to the real evil... Pharmaceuticals.
Just look at this. I added up the revenue from the top 10 companies on this list and came up with $404,650,000. That is the number for 2009. I hope to convince you of why these companies are so successful and how they are willing to kill just about anybody for their profits.
Oh, Marci, that's harsh. You really think drug companies are killing people?
Absolutely!
In the US, the annual death rate, as a direct result of medical treatment, is 225,000 people. Of those, 106,000 are killed by FDA-approved pharmaceutical drugs. The other 119,000 are killed by medical mistreatment in hospitals. This makes medically caused death the third leading cause of mortality in America.
These numbers put Western medicine in the Top 3 list for causes of death in the US. Okay, so those are the people killed every year by the drugs that are approved and out there being used in hospitals, and being prescribed by doctors. But guess what, those are not the only people that will die due to pharmaceutical companies.
Drug companies do not want to put time and money in researching and developing new antibiotics because these types of drugs are generally cheaper and taken for short periods of time rarely. They would much rather continue making Viagra and Prozac, or any other pill they can convince you to take for the rest of your life. If you read Race against time to develop new antibiotics, an article from WHO you will see that I am not making this up. These are not my opinions. Corporations care about profit, not people.
With that in mind, I strongly urge you, before you take another pill, or pick up your next prescription ask yourself, "Is this for my health or for their profits?" I can guarantee you there is no profit for the people that make your pills if you get healthy, so what on Earth makes so many people convinced that this is what the pills are for?
So what is the moral of the story? Pharmaceutical have enabled bacteria to become more dangerous more quickly than they ever could have on their own. With the way the FDA works, it takes about 10 years to get a new drug through the development pipeline, which at the moment is practically empty. There are only 5 companies even working on this and only about 15 potentially effective new antibiotics currently being worked on.
Oh, and not to mention the effect antibiotics in food has had. Shit. Well, I have said enough. You can follow this further if you'd like but it doesn't get any prettier. Pandemics happen fast and these superbugs are already on the rise all over the world. It is simply a matter of time.
Here is a recent news article I leave you with: The Rise of Superbugs Called Apocalyptic Scenario
Enjoy
I'm guilty of not finishing antibiotics and saving them for later 'just in case' :/ I've only done it once or twice, once for a UTI and one for strep throat or something. This was back when I was with James and figured if I saved some I could take it later if I got sick and save money on a trip to the doctor. Do you think low income/poverty plays a role in people not finishing their antibiotics? (I know in my car it did, but curious how often that's really the case) oh and I would never NOT finish them nowadays, though we only use antibiotics if absolutely necessary to begin with.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Poverty is the biggest reason. A lot of people in other countries have to travel to get to clinics to get doses of medications and when they have children and a lack of transportation... there are so many reasons that they are unable to continue treatment at times. These clinics even make an effort to keep track of people, having them come in so they know they are taking the drugs, but of course they are underfunded as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd the last thing you said is also really important, to only use them when absolutely needed. That is what I was going to get into when I mentioned antibiotics in food like chicken, beef, milk and eggs. These animals are given antibiotics in their drinking water, and we eat them. It is really horrifying when you really start thinking about it.
This makes me start thinking about how the FDA is tied in to the food industry along with the drug industry. You really can't trust large corporations. Vaccines are another huge issue.
Yes I was going to ask your thoughts on vaccines as well. Especially the ingredients and your thoughts on aborted fetal cells being used in vaccines and some of our food. We do not go to the doctor unless absolutely necessary. Tyler has been on antibiotics and to the doctor once and not until he was nearly 3.. and even then it was not for an illness but for a thumb infection that I tried to get to go away for 2 weeks with no success. I was pretty upset to find out I was given antibiotics right before my csection without my knowledge (I didn't find out until later that night) I would have opted for them given the choice but there is no reason it needed top be done before Maxwell was born, they could have waited less than an hour so he wouldn't be effected. Apparently it is standard procedure to give preventative antibiotics to women who have csections (I was girounds over 24 hours) which is VB kind of crazy considering 1/3 of women give birth via csection in this country.
ReplyDeleteI was given 3 rounds over 24 hours **
ReplyDeleteI have always told myself I will get more into the topic of vaccines whenever I am in the having-kids-point in my life. I am sure there would be a lot of interest in your thoughts about parenting. I know you have read a lot into topics such as natural birth, breast feeding, co-sleeping, vaccines, education, etc. Most of the mothers I know in our generation are definitely trending in the more natural direction.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the system tries to naturalize itself onto your kids from the moment they are born. they never get a chance to choose not to have chemicals pumped into their body, or their DNA stored in a database. And when you start to think about the fact that most of the entities telling you what to do, or even forcing themselves onto people are private interests. It almost makes you wonder what their real intentions are.