Editor, - In her paper 'Pneumonia in the Nineties' (Aust Prescr 1999;22:37-9), Keryn Christiansen states that 'penicillin was used for almost 4 decades before resistance was detected'. As a bright-eyed undergraduate in 1953, I can very clearly remember sitting in a cold lecture theatre at Sydney University enthralled by a stimulating young lecturer by the name of Ruthven Blackburn, who was trying to instil the fundamentals of medicine into what was most likely his initial class of dental students. I don't think I was alone in being impressed by the breadth, depth and detail of his knowledge as he recounted his experiences in the wards at nearby Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Not only did Dr Blackburn present overwhelming evidence for the acquired resistance of certain strains of streptococci to penicillin, he successfully predicted that other nominated antibiotics would provoke the development of resistant organisms. He was later appointed to the chair of medicine at Sydney. If it has taken the rest of the world until the early 1980s to wake up to the phenomenon of antibiotic resistant organisms, then so be it. However, let us not overlook the visionary contribution made by this prescient academic and physician. By the same token, let us not blind ourselves to the possibility of future instances of mankind's failure to heed nature's warnings. What odds genetically engineered crops?
John Watson
Dentist
Bathurst, N.S.W.
Editor, - I have been following your articles on initiatives to improve antibiotic use (Aust Prescr 1999;22:26-8). I agree that the profession needs to be more discriminating in its application of antibiotics even though we all know this sometimes runs counter to the treatment expectations of individual patients. There has been much talk regarding the appropriateness of antibiotics for otitis media. As an otolaryngologist, most of the patients that filter through to me have been under-treated with respect to their ear infections rather than over-treated. The same might be said for rhinosinusitis. I suspect we may see a return to surgical means of treatment such as myringotomy. The laser-assisted myringotomy, as an outpatient procedure under local anaesthetic, certainly shows promise. Myringotomy may actually improve the outcome of middle ear infection and reduce the incidence of otitis media with effusion, which many people believe is a form of 'antibioma'.
Whilst on the subject of antibiotic use and resistance, it has long concerned me that the indiscriminate use of common antibiotics in animal husbandry needs serious attention. Many organisms that have plagued mankind in the last 2000 years have apparently mutated from domestic and occasionally wild animals. High density farming practices with constant exposure to antibiotics in feedlots must surely be an excellent means of selecting resistant strains of bacteria just waiting to be transmitted into the human population. Can we be reassured that our efforts are being matched in animal husbandry? If not, I fear we are wasting our time.
David M. Merry
Otolaryngologist
South Hobart, Tas.