The Coming Plague (129 page)

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Authors: Laurie Garrett

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30
Ibid.; and M. Harari, F. Shann, V. Spooner, et al., “Clinical Signs of Pneumonia in Children,”
Lancet
338 (1991): 928–30.
31
M. R. Pandey, N. M. P. Dawlaire, E. S. Starbuck, et al., “Reduction in Total Under-Five Mortality in Western Nepal Through Community-Based Antimicrobial Treatment of Pneumonia,”
Lancet
338 (1991): 993–97.
32
B. Sutrisna, R. R. Frerichs, and A. L. Reingold, “Randomised, Controlled Trial of Effectiveness of Ampicillin in Mild Acute Respiratory Infections in Indonesian Children,”
Lancet
338 (1991): 471–74.
33
Ibid.
34
X. Carne, J. M. Arnau, and J. R. Laporte, “Erythromycin Resistance in Streptococci,”
Lancet
II (1989): 444–45; Centers for Disease Control, “Penicillin-Resistant
Streptococcus pneumoniae
—Minnesota,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
26 (1977): 345; Centers for Disease Control, “Drug-Resistant
Streptococcus pneumoniae
—Kentucky and Tennessee, 1993,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
43 (1994): 23–25; A. Marton, M. Gulyas, R. Mun
oz, and A. Tomasz, “Extremely High Incidence of Antibiotic Resistance in Clinical Isolates of
Streptococcus pneumoniae
in Hungary,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
163 (1991): 542–48; L. K. McDougal, R. Facklam, M. Reeves, et al., “Analysis of Multiply Antimicrobial-Resistant Isolates of
Streptococcus pneumoniae
from the United States,”
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
36 (1992): 2176–84; and J. Versalovic, V. Kapur, E. O. Mason, Jr., et al., “Penicillin-Resistant
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Strains Recovered in Houston: Identification and Molecular Characterization of Multiple Clones,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
167 (1993): 850–56.
35
R. Mun
oz, A. Marton, and A. Tomasz, Thirtieth International Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 1990, Abstract No. 173; and A. Tomasz, “Multiple-Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogenic Bacteria,”
New England Journal of Medicine
330 (1994): 1247–51.
36
Centers for Disease Control, “Multiple Antibiotic Resistance of Pneumococci—South Africa,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
26 (1977): 285–86.
37
H. J. Koornhof, M. Jacobs, M. Isaacson, et al., “Follow-up on Multiple Antibiotic-Resistant Pneumococci,”
South African Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
21 (1978): 1–7.
38
A. Tomasz, “Disease Causing Bacteria Resistant to Antibiotics,” Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco, February 19, 1994.
39
Dillon and Derrick (1972), op. cit.
40
J. Casal, A. Fenoll, M. D. Vicioso, and R. Mun
oz, “Increase in Resistance to Penicillin in Pneumococci in Spain,”
Lancet
I (1989): 735.
41
G. M. Caputo, P. C. Appelbaum, and H. H. Liu, “Infections Due to Penicillin-Resistant Pneumococci,”
Archives of Internal Medicine
153 (1993): 1301–10.
42
A. Tomasz, “Multiple-Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogenic Bacteria,”
New England Journal of Medicine
330 (1984): 1247–51; and B. E. Murray, “Can Antibiotic Resistance Be Controlled?”
New England Journal of Medicine
330 (1994): 1229–30.
43
J. M. H. Pearson, G. S. Haile, and R. J. W. Rees, “Primary Dapsone-resistant Leprosy,”
Leprosy Review
48 (1977): 129–32.
44
C. Jia-Kun, W. Si-Yu, H. Yu-Hong, et al., “Primary Dapsone Resistance in China,”
Leprosy Review
60 (1989): 263–66.
45
N. Honore and S. T. Cole, “Molecular Basis of Rifampin Resistance in
Mycobacterium leprae
,”
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
37 (1993): 414–18; and C. Fox, personal communication, 1993.
46
J. W. Boslego, E. C. Tramont, E. T. Takafuji, et al., “Effect of Spectinomycin Use on the
Prevalence of Resistant and of Penicillinase-Producing
Neisseria gonorrhoeae,” New England Journal of Medicine
317 (1987): 272–77.
47
Centers for Disease Control, “Antibiotic Resistant Strains of
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
: Policy Guidelines for Detection, Management and Control,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
36 (1987): Supplement 1S—18S.
48
Centers for Disease Control, “Tetracycline-Resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
—Georgia. Pennsylvania, New Hampshire,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
34 (1985): 563–65; Centers for Disease Control, “Plasmid-Mediated Tetracycline-Resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
—Georgia, Massachusetts, Oregon,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
35 (1986): 304–6; and J. S. Knapp, J. M. Zenilman, J. W. Biddle, et al., “Frequency and Distribution in the United States of Strains of
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
with Plasmid-Mediated, High-Level Resistance to Tetracycline,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
155 (1987): 819–22.
49
Committee on Public Health, “Statement on Treatment of Gonorrhea: Penicillin Is Passe,”
Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
65 (1989): 243–46.
50
J. W. Tapsall, T. R. Shultz, and E. A. Phillips, “Characteristics of
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Isolated in Australia Showing Decreased Sensitivity to Quinolone Antibiotics,”
Pathology
24 (1992): 27–31.
51
World Health Organization, “Implementation of the Global Strategy for Health” (1992), op. cit.
52
Wright (1990), op. cit.
53
N. Harnett, “High Level Resistance to Trimethoprim, Cotrimoxazole and Other Antimicrobial Agents Among Clinical Isolates of
Shigella
Species in Ontario, Canada—An Update,”
Epidemiology of Infection
109 (1992): 463–72.
54
A. A. Ries, Abstract, Thirty-first Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Chicago, September 29—October 2, 1991.
55
One of the clearest examples of the dangers that resistant diarrhea-producing organisms pose to poor countries was Guatemala's 1969 outbreak of antibiotic-resistant
Shigella
. The mutant bacteria were resistant to chloramphenicol, tetracycline, streptomycin, and sulfonamide, then the most commonly used anti-
Shigella
drugs. The epidemic that resulted from the emergence of the new bug sickened 112,000 Guatemalans and killed 12,500, most of them children.
56
According to CDC statistics, acute
Salmonella
food poisoning episodes in the United States skyrocketed. For example, between 1950 and 1980 the number of reported cases jumped from fewer than 1,000 to over 36,000, and the agency felt that physicians reported only one out of every 100 cases. So by 1980 there were probably about 3.5 million
Salmonella
food poisoning incidents in the United States annually. A decade later the CDC would estimate that 5 million Americans came down with
Salmonella
food poisoning annually, and outbreaks that debilitated up to 200,000 at a time were reported throughout the late 1980s.
57
C. Sanchez, E. García-Restoy, J. Garau, et al., “Ciprofloxacin and Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole Versus Placebo in Acute Uncomplicated
Salmonella
Enteritis: A Double-Blind Trial,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
168 (1993): 1304–7.
58
L. M. Bush, J. Calmon, C. L. Cherney, et al., “High-Level Penicillin Resistance Among Isolates of Enterococci,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
110 (1990): 515–20; J. M. Boyce, S. M. Opal, G. Potter-Bynow, et al., “Emergence and Nosocomial Transmission of Ampicillin-Resistant Enterococci,”
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
36 (1992): 1032–39; and F. Caron, J. F. Lemeland, G. Humbert, et al., “Triple Combination Penicillin-Vancomycin-Gentamicin for Experimental Endocarditis Caused by a Highly Penicillin- and Glycopeptide-Resistant Isolate of
Enterococcus faecium
,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
168 (1993): 681–86.
Even ampicillin and vancomycin couldn't kill the bacteria. They were bacteriostatic, meaning they controlled the growth of enterococci colonies and prevented their spread throughout the human body. By 1975
no
drug could actually
kill
the bacteria.
59
T. R. Frieden, S. S. Munsiff, D. E. Low, et al., “Emergence of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in New York City,”
Lancet
342 (1993): 76–79; and R. V. Spera and B. F. Farber, “Multiply-Resistant
Enterococcus faecium
: The Nosocomial Pathogen of the 1990s,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
268 (1992): 2563–64.
60
B. E. Murray, “Can Antibiotic Resistance Be Controlled?”
New England Journal of Medicine
330 (1994): 1229–30; L. Garrett, “Superbugs,”
Newsday,
May 8, 1994: Al, A46, and A47; L. Garrett, “The Ebbing Miracle,”
Newsday,
May 8, 1994: A5, A46; and L. Garrett, “Infection Fighters,”
Newsday,
May 10, 1994: B25, B28–B29.
61
A. H. C. Uttley, N. Woodford, A. P. Johnson, et al., “Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci,”
Lancet
342 (1993): 615.
62
M. H. Wilcox, R. C. Spencer, and G. R. Weeks, “Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci,”
Lancet
342 (1993): 615–16.

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