 Antibiotics: Too Much of a Good Thing?
by Joely Johnson, writer & Carolyn Csongradi, editor
July 2001
Antibiotic manufacturing has increased 25 times -- from 2 million pounds to over 50 million pounds each year. While these drugs are still the best defense against bacterial infections, more and more they are also being used against illnesses that can't be helped by these medications.
When antibiotic drugs first came on the scene about 50 years ago, they were hailed -- and rightly so -- as a modern medical miracle. Until that time, bacteria-related infections such as meningitis and typhoid fever often lead to death. Antibiotics saved millions of lives and had relatively few side-effects.
Technically speaking, an antibiotic (from the Greek, literally "against life") is one of any number of toxic compounds naturally produced by molds and bacteria to target and destroy competing microorganisms. Today, the term antibiotic is more commonly used to refer to synthetic or partly synthetic compounds used medically against bacteria that cause illness in humans, animals, and plants. Penicillin and erythromycin are two of the most widely used antibiotic drugs.
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