Yet Another Antibiotic That Causes More Harm Than Good
It’s long overdue that Fluroquinolones (FQs) were added to the list of dangerous antibiotics that in their current form are far from suitable for human use. A number of prominent medical experts, including Dr Jay S. Cohen – with over forty years practicing the study and application of antibiotics – even goes as far as to say that FQs are in fact even more dangerous – and their use even more scandalous – than the likes of Thalidomide and Vioxx.
To put this into perspective let’s revisit the astonishing amount of damage, and number of lives ruined by these two bogeymen of the antibiotics world. Vioxx was attributed to causing around 140 000 people to suffer heart attacks before it was finally withdrawn and banned. Thalidomide was eventually proven to be the root cause of an unknown number of birth defects – likely to run into the tens if not hundreds of thousands – and is only very rarely prescribed today.
FQs look set to follow this tragic tradition because a clear trend has become apparent that many thousands of people have developed serious health problems after having taken them.
The variety of ill effects that FQs have had are quite literally life threatening, as they have been shown to damage the central nervous system while wreaking havoc upon bone and muscle strength. Most of the symptoms emulate autoimmune conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and even chronic fatigue syndrome, intense depression and the development of bipolar disorders. Most startling, these conditions highlighted by Dr Cohen aren’t recent findings – they’ve been known since 1992!
Yet astonishingly FQs continue to be doled out to patients by doctors who must be aware of the potential serious side effects, yet with a sense of disregard for how the drug can catastrophically damage DNA. Names to be aware of include but are not limited to Levaquin/Levofloxacin, Avelox/Moxifloxacin and Cipro/Ciprofloxacin.
Surely with over two decades worth of clear cut evidence of causing harm it would be reasonable to expect the manufacturers of this drug to withdraw the product and start over – after all they do have a form of duty of care for their customers. Instead the largest manufacturers, the likes of Bayer Johnson & Johnson maintain a veil of silence while continuing to make millions on the back of their lethal wares.
It’s tragic but such is the power of these corporations, their influence in political circles and multi-million dollar lobbying campaigns that they can easily coerce the FDA to look the other way even in full knowledge that a drug prescribed 20 million(!) times a year in the USA is blatantly dangerous. For this reason alone the FDA are just as accountable as the manufacturers for permitting this blight upon public health, making people sicker and shareholders richer.
Once again it’s just another case of ‘Big Pharma’ showing how it can dodge the rules and operate essentially without regulation thanks to influence in high places. Quite simply it’s the epitome of irresponsible, selfish greed, and a scandal just waiting to explode.
