The Food and Drug Administration may be poised to approve a controversial antibiotic for cattle despite fears it could hurt human health, The Washington Post reported in Sunday’s edition.
The drug, called cefquinome, is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, a class of antibiotics used for a range of human diseases including serious gastrointestinal diseases in children and meningitis.
The fear is that using such drugs in animals can lead to the emergence of new drug-resistant “superbugs” which will be immune to similar drugs when used in people.
The overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals has already helped such bacteria evolve, and infectious disease experts have been warning doctors to use them more judiciously.
Technorati Tags: assholism