Your Health Matters
By Claudia Parks, R.N.

Each Sunday on the way home from church, we stop at the Booger Hollow Store to purchase a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution--mainly so that my husband may have the Comics, and hopefully get a good laugh! As for me, certain times of the year I read the Sports and then the rest of the paper as I have time. However, this past Sunday (4th) a front page article certainly caught my attention-- Puzzling germs- Mysterious invader. I'm sure you remember last fall when MRSA made headlines- and caused the panicked closure of some schools in Georgia and across the nation. Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. It's tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus- or staph- because it's resistant to some commonly used antibiotics.

Over the years I've preached - many times--in my column about the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and this overuse has contributed to a phenomenon known as antibiotic resistance. This resistance develops when potentially harmful bacteria change in a way that reduces or eliminates the effectiveness of antibiotics. Those "bugs" (I'll call them bugs for now) keep getting stronger and stronger and meaner and meaner! Some antibiotics seem like a vitamin pill for them!

Let's go back a number of years. Some of you old-timers will remember, but you younger folks will not be able to even imagine! We certainly haven't had antibiotics forever and we can give WWII credit for causing the urgency of coming up with something to prevent and fight infections of the wounded service men. There's not space in this article to give the in-depth history of sulfanilamide, penicillin and other antibiotics which came to the forefront during the war and in the late 40's and 50's.

I was very young but have a memory of my mother becoming very sick with strepthroat which led to rheumatic fever. She was in the hospital for weeks. This was in 1943 and about the only antibiotic drug available was sulfadrug- which was not always easy to obtain since most medicines were being sent "to the front"! The drug didn't seem to be working to heal mother, but the doctor said, "It's better than nothing"! She survived, but her recuperation and complications changed her life. (Sulfanilamide, first used in 1936, was the grandparent of the SULFONAMIDE family of drugs that are still extremely useful today.)

Today and early as the '50's when people develop a streptococcus infection they are treated with penicillin and usually are well within a couple of weeks and don't develop rheumatic fever or other complications.

Most of us know that penicillin was discovered by the Scottish bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming in 1929- from mold! Fleming discovered the germ-killing properties of the "mold juice" secreted by penicillium; he knew that it could have profound medical value. But Fleming could not make enough penicillin to be useful in practice, and his discovery was dismissed as no more than a laboratory curiosity. Ten years later, a team of scientists at Oxford University rediscovered Fleming's work. Armed with increasing evidence of the remarkable powers of penicillin, but unable to engage British companies due to the country's involvement in World War II, the Oxford scientists sought help in America.

Many individuals, industry and government agencies jumped on the bandwagon to see that this lifesaving medicine moved forward into mass production. Pfizer was among the companies responding to a government appeal to join in a high-stakes race to see which company would develop a way to mass-produce the world's first "wonder drug." In 1943 they had enough to treat onehundred wounded. By April, 1945, with the help of warmotivated industries, production increased another 2500- fold! At this point, the drug was made available broadly, beyond the military, to the general public. Without a war at hand, this would not have happened anywhere nearly as fast. One wonders if it might still be sitting in a laboratory somewhere…

It seems that I'm chasing rabbits again! But I so enjoy reading about the history of medicine and sometimes have a jaw-dropping experience when the obvious seems so obvious! Let me remind you that the point of this article is antibiotic resistant bugs! By the mid fifties we were already having a resistant problem and the pharmaceutical companies had to go into high gear to keep-up! We call them wonder-drugs because we "wonder how we are going to pay for them!" Next week, I may write a little more on this subject. Please talk with your health care professional and don't insist that you need an antibiotic with every little ailment!

Claudia Parks, RN, is a former doctor's office and emergency room nurse and retired as an educator from Fulton County Schools. She writes Your Health Matters as a public service; the information here is designed to help you make informed choices about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of your physician. Claudia and her husband make their home in the beautiful north Georgia Mountains, near Blairsville. Claudia can be reached at yhm@windstream.net