Imagine a world without penicillin or the legion of other antibiotics that have followed.
Imagine the toll that simple infections like strep would take. Most people alive today don't remember back to the first half of the last century, when people lived in fear of bacterial infections.
It could happen, though, because bacteria are becoming immune to the effects of these drugs. That's because we use them too much, giving germs a chance to evolve into resistent strains.
A bill being sponsored by Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins along with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would take steps to end the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. It would ban the use of more than a half dozen drugs commonly given to animals to encourage growth and ward off disease.
The Food and Drug Administration is also considering whether to limit antibiotic use through regulatory changes.
Powerful farming interests are skeptical of the bill sponsored by Maine senators. Antibiotics make raising livestock easier and cheaper, after all.
Misuse of those drugs puts people at risk, however.
More and more, doctors report encountering drug-resistant strains of bacteria. It's particularly problematic and alarming when such a strain hits a hospital, where many patients are vulnerable to infection.
Antibiotics have been at the forefront of the fight against disease for more than half a century. They have saved countless lives.
They are not miracle drugs, however. They cannot overcome the tide of evolution, and when enough bacteria are exposed to them, resistant strains emerge.
Snowe and Collins are right to put public health ahead of agricultural profits. The Food and Drug Administration should come to this understanding as well.Portland (ME) Press Herald
