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Antibiotics -- you can help!



A couple of years ago, I was unfortunate enough to be infected by a 
disease that had become resistant to all but 3 antibiotics. My Fish TB, 
*Mycobacterium marinum* (aka "fishkeeper's finger" or "swimmer's 
granuloma") was cured only after six full months of taking a powerful and 
expensive ($6/pill) antibiotic twice a day. The nasty effects on my system 
of such massive long treatment lasted for more months, after that. I still 
have scars.

The situation is getting worse, as indicated in the story at:

http://www.freep.com/news/health/nstaph12_20021112.htm

Common human-used antibiotics are freely available at your LFS. 
Tetracycline, erythromycin, etc. are particularly useless when put 
directly into the water column (too weak to work at non-lethal dosage), 
and every mis-application can leave some potentially resistant bacteria 
behind. Yes, erythromycin can get rid of blue-green algae, but so can 
mechanically cleaning it out and reducing the nitrate source 
(overfeeding?) that caused it to bloom.

I urge you to campaign among your aquatic friends to get educated on this 
problem, and to find ways to use antibiotics that are 100% effective, or 
do not use them at all. Throw away out-of-date medications. Treat only in 
fish food or other ways that assure adequate strength and duration to kill 
*all* of the target pathogens. Do not use gram-negative-specific 
antibiotics to "cure" gram-positive organisms and vice versa. If you can't 
tell the difference, any use will likely cause more harm than good. That 
is exactly why human use requires a prescription!

Folks here get very exercised over traces of pesticide or other stuff in 
their tap water, or insignificant detergent residue on tanks or nets. 
Believe me. Those concerns are about really trivial dangers, when compared 
to the potential for toxic shock when you catch a resistant bacterium and 
it reaches your bloodstream.

Compare the number of *aureus* hospital deaths in the article with the 
totals from terrorist Anthrax, if you want some real perspective that you 
don't get from the "politically-correct" press.

Take it from one who has BTDTBTWW!*

Sermon Mode <OFF>

Wright
______________________
* Instead of "Been There, Done That, Bought the T Shirt" (BTDTBTTS) this 
means "...Bought The Whole Wardrobe!"
-- 
Wright Huntley -- 209 521-0557 -- 731 Loletta Ave, Modesto CA 95351

        Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
         This requires self-control... Lord Acton

                  http://www.sfbaka.net/