Tetracycline Is Fighting The War On Cholera
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Tetracycline Is Fighting The War On Cholera
Michael Connelly is an Author, Artist and award-winning Filmmaker who writes on a variety of topics that effect people in their every day lives.
When most people think of the antibiotic Tetracycline they associate it with the treatment of skin conditions such as acne or rosacea. These conditions can be emotionally painful for those afflicted by them, but there is a much more serious condition associated with this drug. Tetracycline is a Warrior medicine that is also used to treat cholera, a bacterial infection that kills many people in developing nations around the world annually who do not have access to proper treatment.
Tetracycline was invented by a scientist named Lloyd H. Conover working in the Chemical Research Department of a fledgling pharmaceutical company named Pfizer back in 1955. Collaborating with a Harvard Professor named J.W. Woodward, Conover created the first therapeutically superior drug by chemically altering existing antibiotics. In this case it was Terramycin and Aureomycin. Conover obtained a patent that year, and within 3 years Tetracycline became the mostly widely prescribed broad spectrum antibiotic in the United States.
Cholera is a severe bacterial infection that attacks the small intestine. It is caused by the bacterium vibrio cholerae that usually enters the body when contaminated drinking water is consumed. The symptoms include frequent expulsion of watery diarrhea and constant vomiting. These symptoms can cause the victim to become severely dehydrated which will promptly lead to death if treatment with the proper medicine is not received in an expedited manner.
Cholera is endemic in Russia, the Indian subcontinent and sub Saharan Africa. There are approximately 200,000 cases of this infectious disease reported each year worldwide and most of them occur in these regions.
Time is of the essence in the treatment of cholera. Because of the incessant diarrhea and vomiting that cholera victims experience, they expel a lot of water from their bodies in a very short period. Being that the human body on the average is 60 percent water with the brain being 70 percent and the blood being 83 percent, losing water quickly is a serious matter. Without the required water needed to function properly, vital organs will shut down in just a few days time.
Since the introduction of Tetracycline for the treatment of cholera many decades ago, this disease has been a relatively small problem when it comes to infectious diseases. In recent years prior to 2009 it was common to have only 2000 cholera deaths worldwide annually. However, cholera seems to be making a comeback now.
There has been a sharp rise in the statistics of cholera deaths recently in the country of Zimbabwe. Political and economic crisis have brought severely hard times on the citizens of this African nation. Broken sewer pipes, uncollected garbage and a shortage of water purification units have created unsanitary environments amongst the poorest citizens. Unfortunately, in these types of conditions the vibrio cholerae bacterium can thrive. The conditions have been made even worse by the arrival of the rainy season in that area, which begins in January and usually ends in April each year.
There have been over 3000 cholera related deaths in Zimbabwe since August of 2009. Efforts by international charity organizations such as the Red Cross to provide Tetracycline and other antibiotics to the people of the affected areas have been hampered. This is due to dangerous political conditions that exist and a denial by President Mugabe that there is even a problem at all with cholera in his country.
Today, Tetracycline is the most effective weapon available in the war on cholera worldwide. It is very good at killing the vibrio cholerae bacterium very fast. This helps to abate the onslaughts of incessant diarrhea and vomiting that are experienced by cholera victims. According to a Johns Hopkins study, cholera patients who received Tetracycline treatment showed a significant reduction in their stool output within 18 to 24 hours of taking their antibiotics. After an exhaustive study on the different treatments available for cholera the overall conclusion reached was that Tetracycline is the medicine of choice.
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