Expert warns against overuse of antibiotics

The graduation speaker at Des Moines University of Osteopathic Medicine is a nationally known researcher into antibiotic resistance. Dr Stuart Levy says when we overuse medicines, and give them for viral illness they can’t help, we’re breeding new bacteria that can resist the drugs we count on.Levy says some patients in the U.S. suffer from untreatable infections, and some die, which shouldn’t happen in such a rich country. He says Iowa’s a livestock-producing state where the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed also leads to resistant bacteria.Levy says antibiotics are used to compensate for a lack of hygiene and to promote growth. He says there are other ways to grow livestock besides giving them drugs we need for medical treatment. Patients who insist on a treatment sometimes make doctors feel they have to prescribe antibiotics, even though they’ll do no good. Dr Levy says in Minnesota, a patient who asks for something for a cold will get a premade “Cold Kit,” with aspirin, tea, and soup. They leave happy, The State of Iowa should do that, says Levy. The 2001 graduating class of 353 is one of the largest ever at Des Moines University of Osteopathic Medicine.