Bayer Gets Message by the Boxful: Stop Playing Chicken with Cipro!
Posted: 22-Nov-2002; Updated: 22-Nov-2002
This week, Dr. Rebecca Goldburg of Environmental Defense and other members of the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition traveled to Bayer's headquarters in Pittsburgh to hand-deliver 16,000 letters from Action Network activists urging the company to stop fighting the proposed ban on using Cipro-like drugs in poultry. Bayer is now the only manufacturer of the Cipro-like drug and has refused to voluntarily withdraw the drug from the market despite growing pressure to do so. Evidence is mounting that use of the Cipro-like drug in poultry flocks is undercutting the effectiveness of the drug in treating the most common cause of food poisoning in humans.
PHOTO: Dr. Rebecca Goldburg flanked by Sean Crowley and Dr. Richard H. Michaels, the former chief of the Infectious Disease Department at the University of Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital, pose for the news media, despite heavy rain. (photo © Romy Muller)
At a press conference in front of Bayer's headquarters, Dr. Goldburg highlighted new data from the Centers for Disease Control showing that resistance to Cipro-like drugs in bacteria that cause serious food poisoning is getting worse. "These new CDC data show that antibiotic resistance to Cipro in treating the most common cause of severe food poisoning jumped from 14 to 19 percent last year and has increased four of the last five years," she said. "The new data give even greater urgency to the American Medical Association's recommendation that Bayer should stop fighting the FDA's proposed ban, and stop playing chicken with the public's health."
PHOTO: The letters filled a half-dozen large boxes, each of which was labeled with a "prescription" urging Bayer to "Stop Playing Chicken with Cipro - Read Letters from 16,000 Concerned Citizens." (photo © Romy Muller)
FIND OUT MORE
Keep Antibiotics Working news release
Environmental Defense's Antibiotic Resistance page
Listen to NPR's Morning Edition on antibiotic resistance (4/2002)
In the News
"CDC Data Shows Growing Resistance to Cipro" (AP):
Access North Georgia
Austin-American Statesman
Washington Post
"Bayer Urged to Drop Poultry Antibiotic" (Environment News Network)
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