A new study shows that overuse of a drug used to prevent and treat malaria may be contributing to growing antibiotic resistance. Researchers report in the journal PLoS ONE that Escherichia coli bacteria resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin were detected in the digestive tracts of villagers from remote rainforest communities in Guyana who had been given the drug chloroquine to prevent and treat malaria, a potentially fatal disease spread by mosquitoes. This is the first study to show that resistance can emerge in individuals never exposed to the antibiotic, which is used throughout the world to treat bacterial infections, including pneumonia, urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

"Ten to 15 years ago, resistance to ciprofloxacin was rare. [Now], outside of remote populations, cipro resistance in hospitals and the community at large is becoming a problem," says Andrew Simor, a senior scientist at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center at the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the study. "E. coli is one of the most common causes of infections in humans. A decade ago it was nearly universally susceptible to ciprofloxacin." Today, he says, as many as 30 percent of hospital patients tested have E. coli that failed to respond to ciprofloxacin, which is the drug of choice for treating these bacteria.

Drug-resistant bacteria  are known to arise from the overuse of antibiotics, which is why researchers were surprised to discover that they can develop in areas that do not have access to ciprofloxacin, says study co-author Michael Silverman, an infectious disease specialist at Lakeridge Health Network in Ontario. In fact, he says, ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli were even more widespread in remote Guyanese villages than in U.S. intensive care units "where every second person is on antibiotics."

During a three-year study, the researchers monitored the levels of antibiotic-resistant E. coli in patients at their clinics. They found that rates of resistance were over three times higher in February 2003 than they were just a year earlier, Silverman says. The jump corresponded to the increased use of chloroquine—a drug widely prescribed to prevent and control malaria —after a large outbreak of the disease (which causes high fevers, chills, nausea and headaches) in late 2002.

Chloroquine, taken daily by some villagers, is a close chemical cousin of ciprofloxacin. In the early 1960s, the creation of the antibiotic class (quinolones), which includes ciprofloxacin, was based on the by-products of chloroquine synthesis. In laboratory experiments, the team confirmed that chloroquine concentrations similar to those seen in the human intestinal tract prompted E. coli ciprofloxacin resistance.

These findings may have far-reaching implications for the escalating problem of antibiotic resistance. The worldwide use of ciprofloxacin pales in comparison with the use of drugs to counter malaria, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates strikes 350 million to 500 million people (mostly in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America) annually. "It is very possible that the antimalarial drugs may be inducing a large amount of the antibiotic resistance that occurs in the tropics," Silverman says.

6 Comments

1. 1. awsome.in.training 10:05 AM 7/22/08

   I really enjoy reading the magazine.

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2. 2. awsome.in.training 10:06 AM 7/22/08

   This is scary because it tell us that we might not be able to cure anything without something else going wrong

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3. 3. bfreewithrp 09:37 PM 7/22/08

   Ever since Louis Pasteur, whenever we got an earache as a child, strep throat, or other infection, we were usually given an antibiotic to make us better. As an adult, we learn that given all the benefits of this cure-all, there are some negative aspects of using antibiotics. Even now, as I have always been taught that Omega oils lubricate our inner mechanics, probiotics protect them from the deadly invaders.
   http://www.healthmad.com/Medicine/Antibiotics-are-They-Cures-or-Silent-Killers.25888
   Antibiotics: are They Cures or Silent Killers?
   

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4. 4. bfreewithrp in reply to bfreewithrp 09:40 PM 7/22/08

   Ever since Louis Pasteur, whenever we got an earache as a child, strep throat, or other infection, we were usually given an antibiotic to make us better. As an adult, we learn that given all the benefits of this cure-all, there are some negative aspects of using antibiotics. Even now, as I have always been taught that Omega oils lubricate our inner mechanics, probiotics protect them from the deadly invaders.
   
   Antibiotics: are They Cures or Silent Killers?
   

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5. 5. blackcap in reply to awsome.in.training 06:32 PM 4/30/09

   See what happens to your body when you introduce Pharmaceuticals? Our body has the natural ability to heal itself. Unfortunately all the processed food and drink and chemicals we consume and ingest affects our bodies ability to heal. There are natural alternatives, but the powers that be won't allow for that. There's no profit in cures. Because they can't patent nature.

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6. 6. Billy S 05:23 PM 5/28/10

   We need to admit that have to be better advocates of our own health. I was written a script by my doctor, explained what it would do (hearing: Yadda-yadda, antibiotic) and left the office. I dropped it off @ the pharmacy, returned to pick it up, got home & opened the container. Only then did I go: "Hmm. what HONKIN' pills and I only need 5?". Okay, I debated whether to take the first one, read the instructions, saw my name on the bottle but decided to call the pharmacy & confirmed these were for me. I'd been WRITTEN a script for (I think...it was a while ago) Cipro and was delivered a bottle of (again, I believe): Chloroquine. The pharmacist asked: 'Are you going to be visiting any jungles or where malaria could be present?".. Um, NO. She highly advised I return the script right away...she was practically willing to get in her own car & come & get them. I let her know I'd be back on her side of town tomorrow... All this is to say: a lot of these situations aren't being reported. Though it is not our fault, it's still a case (as with any other commodity) of 'buyer beware'.
   

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