[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 7, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ANTIBIOTIC DRUGS ARE BEING OVERUSED

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, antibiotic drugs have revolutionized 
human and veterinary medicines. Many diseases and infections, 
tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid, cholera, which were once difficult to 
treat, and often lethal, have been made readily curable by antibiotic 
drugs.
  But unfortunately, when bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, 
resistant strains emerge, posing a renewed threat to human health. This 
phenomenon makes it more difficult and vastly more expensive to treat 
some infections.
  We all know that the inappropriate use of antibiotics in human 
medicine has contributed to this problem. And mounting scientific 
evidence also shows that the routine feeding of antibiotics to healthy 
farm animals, nontherapeutic use, promotes the development of 
antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can then be communicated to people.
  In recent years, the list of simple bacterial infections that are 
strongly resistant to several classes of antibiotics has grown 
dramatically. Each day that we fail to act, antibiotic resistance 
grows, the long-term usefulness of our antibiotics are undermined.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support H.R. 1771 and H.R. 3804 to 
address the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in human and animal 
medicine.

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