Disinfecting the anti-bacteria debate
By Steven Milloy
Copyright 2000 Washington Times
July 27, 2000
Are we too clean? Should we make homes safer for germs? That is the message
you'll get from today's National Health Council conference,
"Antibiotic Resistance: A Serious Public Health Threat." But there is more to this message than its messenger will disclose.
The conference features Stuart Levy, professor at Tufts University School of
Medicine and president of the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics. For
years, Mr. Levy has crusaded against misuse of antibiotics - an effort with
some merit.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned recently bacteria are increasingly
resistant to antibiotic medicines. Once treatable diseases - such as
gonorrhea, tuberculosis, malaria - may become incurable. Food poisoning is
already more difficult to treat. Infections caught in hospitals, killing an
estimated 88,000 annually, often resist at least one antibiotic.
The problem of antibiotic resistance isn't new but the WHO alarm rightly
spotlights one of the major causes - physicians unnecessarily prescribing
antibiotic drugs.
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported
that doctors wrote in one year 12 million antibiotic prescriptions for colds,
bronchitis and other respiratory infections. But the study noted more than 90
percent of such infections are caused by viruses impervious to antibiotics.
Another recent study concluded up to
half of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary.
Despite the problem of physicians handing out antibiotics like candy, Mr. Levy
curiously focuses attention on consumer use of antimicrobial products,
including hand lotions, soaps and body washes. Used in hospitals for decades,
there's no question antimicrobials work. They're no substitute for soap and
water, but they can provide an extra margin of cleanliness for consumers.
Mr. Levy claims these products will lead to a public health crisis. He says
the products kill the
"good" germs on our bodies and allow
"bad" germs to become resistant to the antimicrobial chemicals. Mr. Levy claims
consumer use of antimicrobial products threatens the use of the same products
in hospitals.
I have debated Mr. Levy twice on national television and one thing is clear:
There is
no scientific evidence antimicrobial products are causing or will cause a
public health problem. Mr. Levy's antimicrobial crusade is 100 percent theory
and zero percent science.
There is one thing, though, that's not clear from Mr. Levy's media appearances
- his conflict of interest.
The media presents Mr. Levy purely as an academic researcher. What isn't
disclosed about this Tuft's professor is that he is also the president of a
Boston-based business, Paratek Pharmaceuticals.
The company's investment prospectus says,
"Paratek has led pioneering work in the field of disinfectants, discovering the
target for and the mode of action of the common antibacterial chemical Triclosan" - the primary chemical used in consumer antimicrobial products.
The prospectus also says,
"Paratek is well-positioned to develop products to serve this non-hospital
consumer product market" - that is, Paratek is poised to become a major competitor in the
anti-microbial soap market.
Paratek is no small concern. The company has a deal involving other antibiotic
resistance research worth up to $95 million with pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome PLC. involving other
antibiotic resistance research.
Is Mr. Levy trashing existing anti-microbial products so he can market his
own? A visibly stunned Mr. Levy denied the conflict of interest when I
confronted him recently on CNN's
"Talk Back Live" television program.
MSNBC news staff said it had difficulty convincing Mr. Levy to appear with me
later that night. Convinced to appear, he dodged my question but did not deny
his conflict of interest.
We have been fighting germs since Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of
disease in 1864, enjoying tremendous success. Now we need to solve the problem
of antibiotic
resistance. We also need to disinfect the current debate by knowing who's who
and who gains what from the ever-present alarmism.
Steven Milloy is a biostatistician, lawyer, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and
publisher of Junkscience.com.
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