Abuse, Overuse of Antibiotics Creates Public Health Crisis

Rosanne Skirble

Before the discovery of antibiotics 2 in the 1940s, millions of people died routinely of staphylococcus and streptococcus and more serious bacterial 3 infections like meningitis, pneumonia 4 and tuberculosis 5. But over the years, antibiotics have become less effective because some bacteria have developed ways to survive the medicines meant to kill or weaken them. VOA's Rosanne Skirble reports on how the overuse and abuse of antibiotics is creating a public health crisis and how some communities are responding to it.
Bacteria comprise about one-20th of our body weight. Most of these organisms are harmless, like those in the intestinal 6 tract 7 that help us to digest our food. Others can make us really sick.
Streptococcus is a common bacteria found on the skin and in the nose, even in healthy people. But it can also cause acute respiratory illness, sinusitis, some ear infections and pneumonia.
Over the last 60 years, most serious bacterial infections have been treated with some type of penicillin 8-related antibiotic 1. Today penicillin is not as effective as it once was. Drug-resistant 9 bacteria are to blame. We are all at risk of getting an untreatable infection because it is the bacteria and not the person that becomes resistant to antibiotics. And those bacteria can be spread by simple physical contact.
Antibiotic resistance is not new, but what is troubling is that the number of drug-resistant bacteria is growing at the same time that the drugs used to combat them are decreasing in potency 10 and number.
A new study released by the Alliance Working for Antibiotic Resistance Education, better known as AWARE, tracks the effectiveness of penicillin against Streptococcus pneumonia, a common bacterial cause of meningitis, ear infections, pneumonia and sinusitis.
It reports that in Northern California, drug-resistant cases fell from 27 percent of all infections in 2000 to 19 percent in 2002. In Southern California resistance remained at 27 percent, still lower than the 30 percent national average.
The decline is good news and in part due to the work of AWARE, a statewide partnership 11 that includes physician organizations, health agencies, healthcare providers and consumer and education groups. Elissa Maas is the executive director.
"The overall goals of AWARE are really three: to increase the appropriate prescribing of antibiotics, to increase the public's awareness 12 of the importance of the issue of both appropriate use antibiotic and antibiotic resistance and then mobilizing communities to take action."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 50 percent of antibiotic use may be inappropriate. Elissa Maas says AWARE targets doctors who over-prescribe antibiotics and consumers who routinely demand them for everything from a headache to the common cold.
"It is about not asking for an antibiotic when we have a cold or flu bug 13 and we go in and we want that from the doctor. We do not need it. It will not work. And, so part of this [work] is just hammering those messages over and over because they are simple behaviors that can solve the problem," she says.
And that means bombarding citizens with information in public service announcements heard on radio stations across California.
Other simple behavior changes include using the entire prescription 14 and not saving or sharing the drugs with anyone. Taking an antibiotic in too small a dose or for too short a time allows the bacteria to develop mutations or to acquire drug resistance from other bacteria.
A World Health Organization report recommends aggressive action to combat drug resistant infections, which it says, "could rob the world of its opportunity to cure illnesses and stop epidemics 16."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has initiated 18 a campaign for the appropriate use of antibiotics, of which the California AWARE program is part. The solution, says AWARE executive director Elissa Maas requires a collaborative effort.
"I can't stress enough the word 'partner.' This issue is so gargantuan 19 that no one organization is going to solve it," she says. " We have got to have the doctors involved. We have got to have the pharmacists, and nurses. We have to have the health plans. We have got to have the pharmaceutical 20 companies. We have got to have consumer groups. We have to have the media. Everybody has to sit there and say, 'Oh my gosh, we have a problem.'"
And from that realization 21, Elissa Maas hopes, will come aggressive programs that the World Health Organization is urging, to ensure that the drugs we have today will be available to fight tomorrow's infections.
I am Rosanne Skirble.

注释：
antibiotics [7Antibai5Ctik] n. 抗生素
staphylococcus [7stAfilEu5kCkEs] n. [微生物] 葡萄状球菌
streptococcus [7streptEu5kCkEs] n. [微] 链球菌
bacterial [bAk5tIErIEl] adj. 细菌的
meningitis [7menin5dVaitis] n. [医] 脑膜炎
pneumonia [niu5mEu7niE] n. 肺炎
tuberculosis [tju7bE:kju5lEusis] n. 肺结核
overuse [5EuvE5ju:z] n. 过度使用
intestinal tract 肠道
sinusitis [7sainE5saitis] n. 窦炎，尤指鼻窦炎
penicillin [7peni5silin7pE5ni] n. [微] 青霉素（音译名为盘尼西林）
potency [5pEJtEnsI] n. 力量
statewide adj. 遍及全州的, 全州范围的
mobilize [5mEubilaiz] v. 动员
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 美国疾病控制预防中心
flu bug 流感病菌
hammer [5hAmE] vt. 重申，一再强调
bombard [5bCmbB:d] vt. 轰击
prescription [pri5skripFEn] n. 处方，药方
dose [dEus] n. 剂量
mutation 15 [mju:5teIF(E)n] n. [生] 突变，变异
initiate 17 [i5niFieit] vt. 发动，发起
collaborative [kE5lAbEreItIv] adj. 协作的，协力完成的
gargantuan [^B:5^AntjuEn] adj. 巨大的，庞大的
pharmacist [5fB:mEsIst] n. 药剂师
pharmaceutical [7fB:mE5sju:tikEl] adj. 制药的，调药的