How Has Antibiotic Resistance Impacted Your Practice?

Dear Dr. Roberts,

As a physician, you are well aware of the mounting dangers from the overuse and misuse of prescription antibiotics. But did you know that 80 percent of antibiotics used in the United States are administered prophylactically to livestock? For PCRM to promote health and good medicine, we must take a stand. I want to hear how your work as a physician is impacted by new pathogens and the demise of our once lifesaving antibiotics. Please share your thoughts and experiences on this issue.

Improper use of antimicrobials is crippling our ability to fight many common infections, such as MRSA. Further, mutated pathogens from factory farms are wreaking havoc across the globe: from avian flu, to swine flu, to the recent outbreak of the most deadly strain of E. coli the world has ever seen.

In North Carolina alone, more antibiotics are given to healthy livestock than are prescribed to the entire U.S. human population. These precious drugs are administered to otherwise healthy farm animals to promote growth and safeguard them from illnesses caused by substandard living conditions. I can’t think of a faster way to spur new, more virulent pathogens and resistant strains.

We need your story to reach the public, Congress, and government agencies. Please take a minute and fill out our survey to help us plan our strategy moving forward. If you are able to respond in the next day or two, it will help our team tremendously.

Sincerely,

Neal Barnard, M.D.
President