A Growing Threat to Rosacea Patients

Antibiotic resistance results when bacteria has the ability to survive through the use of antibiotics that were used as a treatment to kill the bacteria by natural selection or survival of the fittest and reaches the status of a 'superbug'. The greater (longer in duration or frequent use) then the greater the risk of the superbug or resistance in the even that the antibiotic is needed for the patients severe crisis due to trauma or by exposure to a superbug accidently being passed on to the patient. The administration of 10 days of antibiotics increases the risk of a severe bacterial infection for up 12 months.

Some patients pressure their doctor or dermatologist and insist as their looks are most important in their professional and social life. However, the use for long range problems such as acne and rosacea which should be short term skin conditions is not a good use for antibiotics. Also some patients believe antibiotics are effective against the common cold which is most often viral in nature and antibiotics only work on the bacterial micro organisms.

• Though food-producing animals are given antibiotic drugs for important therapeutic, disease prevention or production reasons, these drugs have the downside of potentially causing microbes to become resistant to drugs used to treat human illness, ultimately making some human sicknesses harder to treat.
• About 70% of bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one of the drugs most commonly used to treat infections.
• Some organisms are resistant to all approved antibiotics and must be treated with experimental and potentially toxic drugs.
• Some research has shown that antibiotics are given to patients more often than guidelines set by federal and other health care organizations recommend. For example, patients sometimes ask their doctors for antibiotics for a cold, cough, or the flu, all of which are viral and don't respond to antibiotics. Also, patients who are prescribed antibiotics but don't take the full dosing regimen can contribute to resistance.
• Unless antibiotic resistance problems are detected as they emerge, and actions are taken to contain them, the world could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have again become untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed.

What's being done about the problem? The links below explain and offer reliable information on antibiotic resistance from a variety of sources.

FDA General Background

"The Battle of the Bugs: Fighting Antibiotic Resistance" (FDA Consumer article)

"FDA Publishes Final Rule to Require Labeling About Antibiotic Resistance" (FDA Press Release)

"Human Health Impact and Regulatory Issues Involving Antimicrobial Resistance in the Food Animal Production Environment" (FDA National Center for Toxicological Research)

"Antibiotic Resistance from Down on the Farm" (FDA Consumer article)

"Miracle Drugs vs. Superbugs" (FDA Consumer article)

"Antibiotic resistance fact sheet" (National Institutes of Health)

Questions and answers (CDC)

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (Washington state health dept.)

Guidance Proposed for Evaluating Safety of Antimicrobial Animal Drugs (FDA talk paper)

"HHS Releases Action Plan To Combat Antimicrobial Resistance" (Dept. of Health and Human Services)