Combating Germs – Quick Fixes For Better Healthcare That Aren’t
There has been an increased awareness of germs, and people want to stay healthy so they’re looking for ways to kill germs.
Unfortunately, we have a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Not all germs are bad. We need beneficial microbes. And by relentlessly killing off bacteria, we’re creating a super race of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
Antibacterial Soaps For Better Healthcare By Reducing Germs
It sounds good doesn’t it? Wash your hands with antibacterial soap to get rid of the germs. Wash your body with antibacterial soap to get rid of the germs. Wash your dishes with antibacterial soap to get rid of the germs.
Well, it’s a case of being too good to be true. The role of antibacterial soaps in creating antibiotic resistant bacteria is controversial, with some scientists saying it does, and others saying it has no effect. The FDA, however, is of the opinion that antibacterial soaps aren’t any better to use than regular soap.
What antibacterial soap may do is along the lines of low doses on antibiotics - kill off weaker bacteria. It’s not strong enough to get the really bad dudes, so once again the stronger germs are left to thrive. And once again, instead of making things better, we’re making them worse by allowing the stronger antibiotic resistant germs to thrive.
So What About New Antibiotics? Are They The Answer To Better Healthcare?
If one antibiotic quits working, well, why not create a new one that DOES work?
This would certainly help the problem we’re facing now, but it would be a continuous cycle. Scientists would have to find new antibiotics on a regular basis as bacteria adapt and become resistant to the latest drug.
Right now there’s a big problem with creating new antibiotics, however. The drug companies have moved away from researching and making antibiotics. Why?
As always, follow the money. There’s not enough profit in antibiotics. It takes a lot of money to get a drug on the market, but people may only take an antibiotic once for 3 – 10 days, and never need it again in their entire lifetime.
On the other hand, drugs taken on a daily basis for cholesterol or high blood pressure or diabetes or any of a number of other maladies are naturally a lot more profitable because people need to take them for long periods of time. The drug companies can sell a lot more of those kind of pills than they can sell of antibiotics. So which do you think they’re going to research?
The bottom line for a drug company is to make a profit. Why spend money on research for antibiotics when it’s much more lucrative to create drugs people will need daily?
Looking For Answers For Better Healthcare
Continually bombarding our bodies with antibiotics is not the answer. New drugs to fight the germs that have become resistant is present antibiotics isn’t so much in the works right now.
So how can we combat this ever-growing menace of antibiotic resistant bacteria?
www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/community/anitbiotic-resistance-faqs.htm
www.nih.gov