What are your thoughts on antibiotics and resistant bacteria?

[Au-H2O]

I was arguing with a couple people that no drugs should require a prescription. I was telling them that if we own our own bodies, we should be allowed to put into them what we want without having to get special permission.

They brought up the fact that some countries had non-prescription antibiotics, but they eventually made them prescription because people were over using them or using them incorrectly resulting in resistant bacteria. I countered with the fact that w/o the FDA we'd have more antibiotics and this would not be as much of a problem. I would like to hear your opinions. What other arguments should I use against these people?

 

[amy31416]

That's a tough one because they're right about people overusing/misusing antibiotics, and the effect that can have. When superbugs are created, the collective people who've misused them affect other people's health.

Of course, even with a prescription, antibiotics are misused--perhaps you can find data as to whether mandatory prescriptions actually help reduce incidents of resistant bacteria developing. After all, MRSA happened here and we've required antibiotic prescriptions for as long as I can remember.

 

[WaltM]

I was arguing with a couple people that no drugs should require a prescription. I was telling them that if we own our own bodies

QUALIFIER : You own your body only insofar as you do not cause risk and harm to others.

Suicide bombing, drunk driving, swimming in a pool with AIDS, are not OK "just because I own my body".

, we should be allowed to put into them what we want without having to get special permission.

Not if you intend to live, work, play and eat amongst us, not.

They brought up the fact that some countries had non-prescription antibiotics, but they eventually made them prescription because people were over using them or using them incorrectly resulting in resistant bacteria.

the price of freedom.

I countered with the fact that w/o the FDA we'd have more antibiotics and this would not be as much of a problem.

You'd have the abundance of competiting drugs as you do today with supplements. Drugs and supplements don't just spring out as you wish either, they take time to create, so if they're not developed in time to react to the disease or symptoms, you have a problem.

People who reject vaccines don't appreciate that some countries don't even have the option to be vaccinated if they wanted to. This is no different.

I would like to hear your opinions. What other arguments should I use against these people?

Find them an actual country, not a hypothetical one, if you want a real discussion.

Don't make those "all countries are owned by the same media, same banks, same pharma". Try showing one country that did it right, or else nobody will care what your "hypothetical ideal" is.

 

[EndDaFed]

I didn't know you could contract HIV virus from swimming in a pool. Here I thought blood borne transmission was needed. Not only that but the chlorine in the water would oxidize the protein coat of the virus.

 

[WaltM]

I didn't know you could contract HIV virus from swimming in a pool. Here I thought blood borne transmission was needed. Not only that but the chlorine in the water would oxidize the protein coat of the virus.

you might be right, what about the other ones I mentioned?

 

[Acala]

wise

I was arguing with a couple people that no drugs should require a prescription. I was telling them that if we own our own bodies, we should be allowed to put into them what we want without having to get special permission.

They brought up the fact that some countries had non-prescription antibiotics, but they eventually made them prescription because people were over using them or using them incorrectly resulting in resistant bacteria. I countered with the fact that w/o the FDA we'd have more antibiotics and this would not be as much of a problem. I would like to hear your opinions. What other arguments should I use against these people?

A wise manufacturer of an antibiotic might want to limit its use so that it keeps its value. They might even want to control its administration to insure against the creation of resistant strains. This way they could charge more for it because people would turn to it when they had serious infections nothing else could cure - think flesh-eating bacteria. And it would be a viable product longer. So there is at least the possibility that the free market would produce something like a prescription system for antibiotics. I think this would be especially likely if the government-created corporate business form were eradicated, since it encourages short-term profit-taking rather than long-term strategy.

I was about to say that this could only happen in a market where patents are recognized and enforced. But then I realized that might not be true. In fact, keeping the chemical structure of a drug a secret might be another reason for a drug maker to keep control of the use of its product through a prescription plan. .

 

[brandon]

Phage therapy is very interesting treatment approach for MRSA and other resistant bacteria strains. Theoretically it should be possible to quickly evolve new phages that can kill any bacteria, making bacteria resistance a non problem.


The biggest obstacle for phage therapy has been the FDA. If we didn't have to battle the government to create new medicines phage therapy may already be fully developed treatment.

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v22/n1/full/nbt0104-31.html


Let the market work.

 

[XNavyNuke]

What other arguments should I use against these people?

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics is rampant in agribusiness meat & poultry production. Not only are animals routinely given a/b in their feed, their living conditions are far more conducive to pathogens than the homeless hovel under the bridge down by the river. The FDA is unable or unwilling to address these petri dishes. I'll leave it to the maroons your debating as to which will more quickly develop a strain of MREC, a handful of people who stop their a/b a week early when they feel better or thousands of pigs wallowing in their own feces on a daily basis.

XNN

 

[Working Poor]

I think I would use my rife frequency machine on them teach em a lesson.