Stomach Bug Mutates was Homeopathy NOT in the news
Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:47 pm
"The infection usually hits people who are taking antibiotics for other
reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among people who were
taking nothing, another unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior."
"Shultz is one of a growing number of young, otherwise healthy Americans "
-my comment....... Americans and others are hardly healthy....
"Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up her acne " - yup!
You cannot mess with mother nature. I'm sure she isn't on probiotics
either. The HUGE use of antibiotics during pregnancy, delivery, continuing
thru infancy, toddlerhood, childhood and adulthood is to blame for
mutations, resistance, and harm and it is JUST NOT NECESSARY (and I would
suggest part of the autism issue - I have 2 cases now where I KNOW that is
part of it - main part in one who got no vaccines, but lots of drugs in
delivery and post and emotional trauma)
It all makes me sick! Every case I take, practically, has antibiotics
implicated in it.
If people would only see a homeopath to begin with and avoid all this grief
Sheri
Stomach Bug Mutates Into Medical Mystery
Antibiotics, Heartburn Drugs Suspected
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 2005; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 2005122901
575.html
[foto] Christina Shultz, 35, has battled Clostridium difficile for six
months. Until recently, it was largely confined to older patients and was
easily cured.
Photo Credit: By Cj Gunther For The Washington Post
First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and
weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue -- so overwhelming she
couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get
worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit -- repeatedly forcing her into
the hospital.
Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had
an intestinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older,
sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of
antibiotics. But after months of treatment, Shultz is still incapacitated.
"It's been a nightmare," said Shultz, a mother of two young children. "I
just want my life back."
Shultz is one of a growing number of young, otherwise healthy Americans who
are being stricken by the bacterial infection known as Clostridium
difficile -- or C. diff -- which appears to be spreading rapidly around the
country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness.
That is raising alarm among health officials, who are concerned that many
cases may be misdiagnosed and are puzzled as to what is causing the microbe
to become so much more common and dangerous.
"It's a new phenomenon. It's just emerging," said L. Clifford McDonald of
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're
very concerned. We know it's happening, but we're really not sure why it's
happening or where this is going."
It may, however, be the latest example of a common, relatively benign bug
that has mutated because of the overuse of antibiotics.
"This may well be another consequence of our use of antibiotics," said John
G. Bartlett, an infectious-disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore. "It's another example of an organism that all of a sudden has
gotten a lot meaner and nastier."
In addition, new evidence released last week suggests that the enormous
popularity of powerful new heartburn drugs may also be playing a role.
The antibiotics Flagyl (metronidazole) and vancomycin still cure many
patients, but others develop stubborn infections like Shultz's that take
over their lives. Some resort to having their colon removed to end the
debilitating diarrhea. A small but disturbingly high number have died,
including an otherwise healthy pregnant woman who succumbed earlier this
year in Pennsylvania after miscarrying twins.
The infection usually hits people who are taking antibiotics for other
reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among people who were
taking nothing, another unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior.
The infection has long been common in hospital patients taking antibiotics.
As the drugs kill off other bacteria in the digestive system, the C. diff
microbe can proliferate. It spreads easily through contact with
contaminated people, clothing or surfaces.
There are no national statistics, but the number of infections in hospitals
appears to have doubled from 2000 to 2003 and there may be as many as
500,000 cases each year, McDonald said. Other estimates put the number in
the millions.
The emerging problem first gained attention when unusually large and
serious outbreaks began turning up in other countries. In Canada, for
example, Quebec health officials reported last year that perhaps 200
patients died in an outbreak involving at least 10 hospitals. Similar
outbreaks were reported in England and the Netherlands.
After the CDC began receiving reports of severe cases among hospital
patients in the United States -- and in people who had never, or just
briefly, been hospitalized -- it launched an investigation.
In the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC
reported that an analysis of 187 C. diff samples found that the unusually
dangerous strain that caused the Quebec cases was also involved in
outbreaks at eight health care facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New
Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
"This strain has somehow been able to get into hospitals widely distributed
across the United States," said Dale N. Gerding of Loyola University in
Chicago, who helped conduct the analysis. "We're not sure how."
But scientists do have a few clues. The dangerous strain has mutated to
become resistant to a class of frequently used antibiotics known as
fluoroquinolones. That means anyone taking those antibiotics for other
reasons would be particularly prone to contract C. diff .
"Because this strain is resistant, it can take advantage of that situation
and establish itself in the gut," Gerding said.
Experts said the resistant germ's proliferation offers the latest reason
why people should use antibiotics only when necessary, to reduce both their
risk for C. diff and the chances that other microbes will mutate into more
dangerous forms.
"That's one theory for what's happening here," said J. Thomas Lamont of
Harvard Medical School. "If we reduce the number and amount of antibiotics
given for trivial infections like colds and stuffy noses, we'd all be a lot
better off."
Overuse of antibiotics can make germs more dangerous by killing off
susceptible strains, leaving behind those that by chance have mutated to
become less vulnerable to the drugs. The resistant strains then become
dominant.
In addition to being resistant, the dangerous C. diff strain also produces
far higher levels of two toxins than do other strains, as well as a third,
previously unknown toxin. That would explain why it makes people so much
sicker and is more likely to kill. In Quebec, C. diff killed 6.9 percent of
patients -- which is much higher than the disease's usual mortality rate --
and was a factor in more than 400 deaths.
Adding to the alarm is evidence that the infection is occurring outside of
hospitals. When the CDC began looking for such cases earlier this year,
investigators quickly identified 33 cases in New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Ohio and Pennsylvania, including 23 people who had never been in the
hospital and 10 women who had been hospitalized only briefly to deliver a
baby, the agency reported this month. Eight of the patients had never taken
antibiotics.
"This is the first time we've started to see this not only in people who
have never been in the hospital but also in those who are otherwise
perfectly healthy and have not even taken antibiotics," McDonald said.
"It's probably going on everywhere," he said.
It remains unclear whether the cases occurring outside the hospital are
being caused by the same dangerous strain.
"We don't really know what's going on here," McDonald said. "We know it's
changing in some ways; we know it's changing the kinds of patients it's
attacking, and we know it's causing more severe disease. But we don't know
exactly why."
Canadian researchers, however, have found one possible culprit: popular new
heartburn drugs. Patients taking proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec
and Prevacid, are almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with C-diff
, the McGill University researchers reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association. And those taking another type
called H2-receptor antagonists, such as Pepcid and Zantac, are twice as
likely. By suppressing stomach acid, the drugs may inadvertently help the
bug, the researchers said.
Whatever the cause, the infection often resists standard treatment. That is
what happened to Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up
her acne when C. diff hit in June. Because the bacterium can hibernate in
protective spores, patients can be prone to recurrences. It can take
multiple rounds of antibiotics -- or sometimes infusions of antibodies or
ingesting competing organisms such as yeast or the bacteria found in yogurt
-- to finally cure them.
"I'm trying to stay positive," Shultz said. "People tell me it does go away
and I will get rid of it someday. I'm looking forward to getting my life
back, but I'm not convinced I'll ever be normal again."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
The material in this post is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for purposes
that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net
ONLINE Introduction to Homeopathy Classes
ONLINE Introduction to Vaccine Dangers Classes
Voicemail US 530-740-0561 UK phone from US 011-44-1874-624-936
reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among people who were
taking nothing, another unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior."
"Shultz is one of a growing number of young, otherwise healthy Americans "
-my comment....... Americans and others are hardly healthy....
"Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up her acne " - yup!
You cannot mess with mother nature. I'm sure she isn't on probiotics
either. The HUGE use of antibiotics during pregnancy, delivery, continuing
thru infancy, toddlerhood, childhood and adulthood is to blame for
mutations, resistance, and harm and it is JUST NOT NECESSARY (and I would
suggest part of the autism issue - I have 2 cases now where I KNOW that is
part of it - main part in one who got no vaccines, but lots of drugs in
delivery and post and emotional trauma)
It all makes me sick! Every case I take, practically, has antibiotics
implicated in it.
If people would only see a homeopath to begin with and avoid all this grief
Sheri
Stomach Bug Mutates Into Medical Mystery
Antibiotics, Heartburn Drugs Suspected
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 2005; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 2005122901
575.html
[foto] Christina Shultz, 35, has battled Clostridium difficile for six
months. Until recently, it was largely confined to older patients and was
easily cured.
Photo Credit: By Cj Gunther For The Washington Post
First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and
weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue -- so overwhelming she
couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get
worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit -- repeatedly forcing her into
the hospital.
Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had
an intestinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older,
sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of
antibiotics. But after months of treatment, Shultz is still incapacitated.
"It's been a nightmare," said Shultz, a mother of two young children. "I
just want my life back."
Shultz is one of a growing number of young, otherwise healthy Americans who
are being stricken by the bacterial infection known as Clostridium
difficile -- or C. diff -- which appears to be spreading rapidly around the
country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness.
That is raising alarm among health officials, who are concerned that many
cases may be misdiagnosed and are puzzled as to what is causing the microbe
to become so much more common and dangerous.
"It's a new phenomenon. It's just emerging," said L. Clifford McDonald of
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're
very concerned. We know it's happening, but we're really not sure why it's
happening or where this is going."
It may, however, be the latest example of a common, relatively benign bug
that has mutated because of the overuse of antibiotics.
"This may well be another consequence of our use of antibiotics," said John
G. Bartlett, an infectious-disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore. "It's another example of an organism that all of a sudden has
gotten a lot meaner and nastier."
In addition, new evidence released last week suggests that the enormous
popularity of powerful new heartburn drugs may also be playing a role.
The antibiotics Flagyl (metronidazole) and vancomycin still cure many
patients, but others develop stubborn infections like Shultz's that take
over their lives. Some resort to having their colon removed to end the
debilitating diarrhea. A small but disturbingly high number have died,
including an otherwise healthy pregnant woman who succumbed earlier this
year in Pennsylvania after miscarrying twins.
The infection usually hits people who are taking antibiotics for other
reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among people who were
taking nothing, another unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior.
The infection has long been common in hospital patients taking antibiotics.
As the drugs kill off other bacteria in the digestive system, the C. diff
microbe can proliferate. It spreads easily through contact with
contaminated people, clothing or surfaces.
There are no national statistics, but the number of infections in hospitals
appears to have doubled from 2000 to 2003 and there may be as many as
500,000 cases each year, McDonald said. Other estimates put the number in
the millions.
The emerging problem first gained attention when unusually large and
serious outbreaks began turning up in other countries. In Canada, for
example, Quebec health officials reported last year that perhaps 200
patients died in an outbreak involving at least 10 hospitals. Similar
outbreaks were reported in England and the Netherlands.
After the CDC began receiving reports of severe cases among hospital
patients in the United States -- and in people who had never, or just
briefly, been hospitalized -- it launched an investigation.
In the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC
reported that an analysis of 187 C. diff samples found that the unusually
dangerous strain that caused the Quebec cases was also involved in
outbreaks at eight health care facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New
Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
"This strain has somehow been able to get into hospitals widely distributed
across the United States," said Dale N. Gerding of Loyola University in
Chicago, who helped conduct the analysis. "We're not sure how."
But scientists do have a few clues. The dangerous strain has mutated to
become resistant to a class of frequently used antibiotics known as
fluoroquinolones. That means anyone taking those antibiotics for other
reasons would be particularly prone to contract C. diff .
"Because this strain is resistant, it can take advantage of that situation
and establish itself in the gut," Gerding said.
Experts said the resistant germ's proliferation offers the latest reason
why people should use antibiotics only when necessary, to reduce both their
risk for C. diff and the chances that other microbes will mutate into more
dangerous forms.
"That's one theory for what's happening here," said J. Thomas Lamont of
Harvard Medical School. "If we reduce the number and amount of antibiotics
given for trivial infections like colds and stuffy noses, we'd all be a lot
better off."
Overuse of antibiotics can make germs more dangerous by killing off
susceptible strains, leaving behind those that by chance have mutated to
become less vulnerable to the drugs. The resistant strains then become
dominant.
In addition to being resistant, the dangerous C. diff strain also produces
far higher levels of two toxins than do other strains, as well as a third,
previously unknown toxin. That would explain why it makes people so much
sicker and is more likely to kill. In Quebec, C. diff killed 6.9 percent of
patients -- which is much higher than the disease's usual mortality rate --
and was a factor in more than 400 deaths.
Adding to the alarm is evidence that the infection is occurring outside of
hospitals. When the CDC began looking for such cases earlier this year,
investigators quickly identified 33 cases in New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Ohio and Pennsylvania, including 23 people who had never been in the
hospital and 10 women who had been hospitalized only briefly to deliver a
baby, the agency reported this month. Eight of the patients had never taken
antibiotics.
"This is the first time we've started to see this not only in people who
have never been in the hospital but also in those who are otherwise
perfectly healthy and have not even taken antibiotics," McDonald said.
"It's probably going on everywhere," he said.
It remains unclear whether the cases occurring outside the hospital are
being caused by the same dangerous strain.
"We don't really know what's going on here," McDonald said. "We know it's
changing in some ways; we know it's changing the kinds of patients it's
attacking, and we know it's causing more severe disease. But we don't know
exactly why."
Canadian researchers, however, have found one possible culprit: popular new
heartburn drugs. Patients taking proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec
and Prevacid, are almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with C-diff
, the McGill University researchers reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association. And those taking another type
called H2-receptor antagonists, such as Pepcid and Zantac, are twice as
likely. By suppressing stomach acid, the drugs may inadvertently help the
bug, the researchers said.
Whatever the cause, the infection often resists standard treatment. That is
what happened to Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up
her acne when C. diff hit in June. Because the bacterium can hibernate in
protective spores, patients can be prone to recurrences. It can take
multiple rounds of antibiotics -- or sometimes infusions of antibodies or
ingesting competing organisms such as yeast or the bacteria found in yogurt
-- to finally cure them.
"I'm trying to stay positive," Shultz said. "People tell me it does go away
and I will get rid of it someday. I'm looking forward to getting my life
back, but I'm not convinced I'll ever be normal again."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
The material in this post is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for purposes
that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net
ONLINE Introduction to Homeopathy Classes
ONLINE Introduction to Vaccine Dangers Classes
Voicemail US 530-740-0561 UK phone from US 011-44-1874-624-936
Consider the possibilities...!