The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued a technical report warning that doctors’ ability to treat life-threatening infections in children is being compromised by the practice of adding antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs to the feed of healthy livestock.
“Children can be exposed to multiple-drug resistant bacteria, which are extremely difficult to treat if they cause an infection, through contact with animals given antibiotics and through consuming the meat of those animals,” said the report’s lead author Jerome A. Paulson, MD, FAAP in a statement.
Nearly 80% of antibiotic use in the United States is in livestock. Many of the drugs are given to the animals for nontherapeutic use such as feed efficiency and growth promotion.
“Antibiotic resistance is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, both in kids and adults, so much so that some infections are becoming difficult, if not impossible to treat,” Dr. David Haslam, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and the Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said. [1]
Haslam say that kids and others with compromised immune systems are at the greatest risk, such as those undergoing cancer treatment, bone marrow transplants, or organ transplants. Children in the hospital for trauma and other serious ailments are also highly susceptible to drug-resistant infections.
“The use of and/or water that’s fed to the animals will cause the bacteria that are in the animals to become resistant to those antibiotics,” said Paulson.
Unnecessary antibiotics given to livestock can create a situation in which someone can become infected with a certain bacteria and the antibiotic prescribed doesn’t kill the bacteria or treat the infection. A certain class of antibiotics that includes penicillin is suspected of actually making the superbug MRSA worse.
In the United States, infections strikes 2 million people every year; more than 23,000 of those individuals die from them, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. The network said in 2013 that the highest incidence was among children under 5 years old.
“Infection with these bacteria is not something parents need to have a high level of anxiety about on a day-to-day basis — the infections themselves are rare,” Paulson explained. “Most healthy kids aren’t going to get infected. But if they do, or a child has a problem that impacts their immune system… it’s doubly difficult to treat.” [2]
Antibiotic resistance isn’t the only potential health hazard facing children who get too many of the drugs. Recent scientific findings suggest antibiotics may also be making children fat, predisposing them to diabetes, heart disease and other life-threatening diseases.
The easiest way to ensure that your child avoids livestock-related bacterial infections is, obviously, to stop eating meat as a family. If you’ve got to have an occasional burger fix, only serve meat that you know hasn’t been treated with antibiotics.
It’s also important for parents to only accept a prescription antibiotic for their children if it’s absolutely necessary. Viruses cannot be treated with antibiotics. Moms and dads should give an illness several days to run its course, and if it does not, then take their child to the doctor.
Sources:
[1] CBS News
Nice article Julie! Antibiotic resistance is indeed a huge problem. They are overused & misused in both people and animals. Misused by people not taking the full dose for the full period of time. What we need is for drug companies to develop new antibiotics to help combat these resistant bacteria, and then only use them in rare cases when they are really needed. That way the livestock industry can still use the less effective ones for their needs and keep the newer ones for the humans. The only part of the article that I really do find skeptical is that antibiotics are making kids fat. Really? Give me a break, kids need to eat better, get off the couch and put down the iphone/game controller and get some exercise.
“Eat better”. As in avoid foods that contain GMO products (also known as junk foods).
Also, let’s ban advertising junk food to children (and everyone else for that matter).
I see you are as misinformed as the majority. True, most junk food now contains gmos, for economical factors. Get rid of gmos and junk food will still be there. Don’t blame gmos, you can eat nice healthy meals made from gmo fed meat, gmo sweet corn and squash.
GMO is just a technology. I blame people who value profit (economical factors) over health, the environment, common sense, local communities, food security, science, peace, and democracy.
Yours is a poor defense of the application of this technology. Like saying it’s okay give away guns to every convicted felon because they would be able to get them anyway.
GMO fed meat is far from “healthy”.
Again you confuse things. Gmo fed meat is exactly the same as any other grain fed animal. Now if you wish to argue say grass fed beef vs. grain fed that is different as has zero to do with gmos.
As for the use of gmos, if you could only see it at the farm level and get the full story. Farmers no longer have to handle tons of expensive and dangerous granular insecticides thanks to gmos. Yes we still use herbicides, of course we did before. Yes, glyphosate use has skyrocketed, while other more dangerous ones have declined. Overall usage per acre has declined, yes I have seen those nice little articles about how many more total pounds of herbicides we use today over twenty years ago, but they forget to mention the little fact that there are millions of more acres in production today vs twenty years ago as well.
I’ve been to many farms.
There are ways of doing it without any petroleum inputs of any kind.
There are over 20,000 varieties of edible plants yet we use less than 20 for 90% of our food.
I don’t eat grain fed animals. Feeding them grains is a way to reduce costs. I don’t choose my food based on low prices but on best quality for health.
True there are many ways of doing things and each individual must choose which is right on their farm, or for which food they wish to buy. For me, grain fed beef has nothing to do with cost, it has to do with the taste from the marbling of the meat. True this is not necessarily the healthiest choice, but if I was worried about that then I wouldn’t choose meat in the first place.
All true. We must all find our own way.
I don’t really eat that much meat anymore. When I do, I choose meat from local integrated farms where the animals get to roam around eat a diversity of things they choose to eat.
Sure GMO Roberts troll.
Yes, when in reality the opposite is true. By using things such as gmo canola to cook fries in, it can replace saturated fat with healthy omega fats. Thanks for pointing that out.
Liar. You’re exposed here:
Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola?
Canola is not the name of a natural plant but a made-up word, from the
words “CANadian Oil Low Acid”. Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the Rapeseed Plant, which is part of the
mustard family of plants. According to AgriAlternatives, The Online Innovation,and Technology Magazine for Farmers, “By nature, these rapeseed
oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are…
toxic to humans and other animals”. Rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and is an excellent insect repellent. Use it (in very diluted form, as per instructions) to kill the aphids on roses. Itworks very well; it suffocates them. Ask for it at your nursery. Rape is an oil that is used as a lubricant, fuel, soap and synthetic rubber baseand as a illuminate for color pages in magazines. It is an industrial oil.
Rape oil is strongly related to symptoms of emphysema, respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, and blindness in animals and humans. Rape
oil was widely used in animal feeds in England and Europe between 1986 and 1991, when it was discontinued.
Canada paid the FDA the sum of $50 million to have rape registered and recognized as “safe”. (Source: Young Again and others)
It has been shown to cause lung cancer (Wall Street Journal: 6/7/95)
http://breathing.com/articles/canola-oil.htm
(there are TONS of articles online on this deadly poison.)
Liar. Here’s the truth about “canola oil”–hah “healthy omega fats” BS
Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil frompeanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola? Canola is not the name of a natural plant but a made-up word, from the words “CANadian Oil Low Acid”. Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the Rapeseed Plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants. According to AgriAlternatives, The Online Innovation,and Technology Magazine for Farmers, “By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are…toxic to humans and other animals”.
Rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and is an excellent insect repellent. I have been using it (in very diluted form, as per instructions) to kill the aphids on my roses for the last two years. It works very well; it suffocates them. Ask for it at your nursery.
Rape is an oil that is used as a lubricant, fuel, soap and synthetic rubber base and as a illuminate for color pages in magazines. It is an industrial oil.It is not a food.
Rape oil is strongly related to symptoms of emphysema, respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, and blindness in animals and humans. Rape
oil was widely used in animal feeds in England and Europe between 1986 and 1991, when it was discontinued.
Canada paid the FDA the sum of $50 million to have rape registered and recognized as “safe”.(Source: Young Again and others)
It has been shown to cause lung cancer (Wall Street Journal: 6/7/95)
http://breathing.com/articles/canola-oil.htm
There are TONS of sites online talking about fake canola. Just search is canola oil hazardous to health. Happy reading!
Avoid all GMOs, your health depends on it. Certified organic grocery stores cannot sell GMOs. If you care about your health you will stop all GMO (hazardous NON-food) and be healthy. It costs more but worth every penny because it keeps you out of the hospital and having to take pHARMafia drugs. I’ve been doing it since 1998 and I don’t have to go to the ‘quacktor’ for drugs. GMO products are NOT food.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” — Hippocrates, the father of medicine.
You need to get real. GMOs are nutritiously the SAME. People are aware of your scare tactics and that is why things like labeling have been defeated all 5 times it was put before the people.