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Health Tip: Why Antibiotic Resistance Is Serious

Posted 16 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

-- Antibiotic resistance occurs when a bacterium mutates and becomes immune to the effects of a specific antibiotic. You can help prevent antibiotic resistance by taking an antibiotic regimen only when necessary. Remember that antibiotics don't work against viral infections such as a cold or the flu. If you do begin taking an antibiotic, you should never skip a dose. Also, you should finish the entire amount that your doctor has prescribed, despite the fact that you might be feeling better. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says antibiotic-resistant bacteria are dangerous because: It may be difficult to find a medication that kills the bacteria. Resistant bacteria tend to spread more quickly between families and within communities. Infections become more difficult and more expensive to treat. People may die from a resistant infection before it can be treated ... Read more

Antibiotic May Help Ease Irritable Bowel

Posted 6 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 5 – A two-week course of an antibiotic relieved bloating and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, a common gastrointestinal disorder, for more than two months after treatment ended, new research shows. Researchers say the antibiotic, rifaximin, made by Salix Pharmaceuticals, is the first treatment for irritable bowel syndrome that gets at the underlying cause of the condition, rather than just treating the symptoms. The findings are published in the Jan. 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The research involved 1,260 people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but no constipation. They took either rifaximin or a placebo three times a day for two weeks. In the four weeks after treatment, nearly 41 percent of those who'd taken rifaximin reported "adequate relief" of IBS symptoms, compared with about 32 percent of the placebo group. When asked about ... Read more

Related support groups: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Xifaxan, Rifaximin

Smarten Up About Antibiotics, CDC Urges

Posted 18 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Nov. 18 – Knowing when to take antibiotics – and when not to – can help fight the rise of deadly "superbugs," say experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary or inappropriate, the agency says, and overuse has helped create bacteria that don't respond, or respond less effectively, to the drugs used to fight them. "Antibiotics are a shared resource that has become a scarce resource," said Dr. Lauri Hicks, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. She's also medical director a of new program, Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, that had its launch this week. "Everyone has a role to play in preventing the spread of antibiotic resistance," Hicks said. The stakes are high, said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, CDC's associate director for health care-associated infection prevention programs. Almost every type of bacteria ... Read more

A Radical Plan To Save Antibiotics

Posted 7 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com

From Guardian Web (September 7, 2010) What are we to do about the diminishing power of antibiotics - once the miracle drugs that looked set to end infectious diseases? We know the problem is becoming very serious - here is a piece I wrote about the alarming prospects for a future without antibiotics. But we don’t hear much in the way of imaginative answers. So it’s refreshing to read a paper out this morning from Aaron Kesselheim, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Kevin Outterson, a professor at Boston University Law School. Their analysis, published in the journal Health Affairs, says the usual idea, to give pharmaceutical companies financial incentives to invent and manufacture more antibiotics, won’t work. One of the reasons we are in this parlous state of affairs, they say, is that drug companies in the past have tried too hard to sell more ... Read more

Antibiotic Resistance Can Last a Year, Review Finds

Posted 19 May 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, May 18 – Some patients who take antibiotics may become resistant to them and stay that way for as long as a year, a new review finds. The researchers analyzed 24 studies of antibiotic resistance, in which people develop a partial or full immunity to the powers of a medication. The studies looked at use of the drugs in primary care, most often for respiratory or urinary tract infections. Antibiotic resistance is at its height in the month after a drug is prescribed, but the effect may last for a year, according to the findings published online May 18 in BMJ. "Primary care clinicians and patients may wish to consider this evidence when discussing the benefits and risks of prescribing and consuming antibiotics," study author Alastair Hay, consultant senior lecturer in primary health care at the University of Bristol in England, and colleagues concluded. In an accompanying ... Read more

FDA Approves New Use of Xifaxan for Patients with Liver Disease

Posted 29 Mar 2010 by Drugs.com

SILVER SPRING, Md., March 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the use of Xifaxan for reduction in the risk of the recurrence of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in patients with advanced liver disease. This is a new use for Xifaxan (rifaximin), a drug that has been approved for the treatment of traveler's diarrhea. Hepatic encephalopathy is a worsening of brain function that can occur in patients whose liver can no longer remove toxins from the blood. Increased levels of ammonia in the blood are thought to play a role in the development of HE, and Xifaxan works by reducing these levels. "The approval of Xifaxan for this new indication provides an additional treatment option for patients with liver disease," said Joyce Korvick, M.D., deputy director for safety of FDA's Division of Gastroenterology Products. "Hepatic encephalopathy occurs ... Read more

Related support groups: Xifaxan, Hepatic Encephalopathy, Rifaximin

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Hepatic Encephalopathy, Diarrhea, Traveler's Diarrhea, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn's Disease