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TrfDA approves new antibiotic
ikynercid to serve as weapon against drug-resistant bacteria
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Jrnamer!®/ASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors gained a
)wn Gliiiiial new weapon yesterday to save patients
ist wee-'orn the growing threat of drug-resistant bac-
ipt Sar : !ria The government approved Synercid, the
versity alternative in 30 years to the current an-
of Gei biotic of last resort.
"Winning®Synercid comes at a critical time, as more
nes. Hmore germs develop resistance to that “sil
l-2 ata jfcbullet” antibiotic, vancomycin, leaving doc-
e Unive Hl merely to watch in despair as patients die
g a f 0 oni once-treatable infections.
) RatafeflFor those of us who treat the most sick pa-
Jts, in hospitals where they do a lot of major
i Bery, having another option is very impor-
Dry of tt »nt>” Dr. George Eliopoulos of Beth Israel Dea
fness Hospital in Boston said.
But Synercid is not a magic bullet. The Food
■ Drug Administration approved its use only
h Brtain infections — albeit ones that strike hun
dreds of thousands of patients — because it
Korks well against some germs but not others,
mnd doctors should not use Synercid when
Br antibiotics will do because overuse will
a iilply hasten bacteria’s inevitable develop-
Hit of resistance against this new drug, the
FDA warned.
■The drug should be used judiciously,” FDA
ch is at mtibiotics chief Dr. Sandra Kweder said. “For
lay ch::
many patients it will be a drug of last resort, and
we’d like to protect it for as long as possible.”
Some infectious disease experts predicted
Synercid’s cost — at $85 per intravenous vial,
more than four times more expensive than van
comycin — will persuade doctors to save it for
the sickest patients.
In studies of more than 2,000 patients, in
travenous Synercid effectively quelled 52 per
cent of infections.
Synercid is most important in fighting a fear
some germ spread to thousands of hospitalized
patients called “vancomycin-resistant Entero
coccus faecium,” infamous for causing lethal
infections in the abdomen, urinary tract, post-
surgical wounds and heart valves.
In one study of 330 patients infected with
that supergerm, 90 percent had their infection
clear up within 72 hours of starting treatment
with Synercid, the FDA said.
The first super-strength enterococcal infection
appeared in 1989, but the problem grew so fast
that in the first six months of this year, 18 percent
of all enterococcal bloodstream infections were
vancomycin-resistant, affecting thousands of peo
ple, Dr. Ronald Jones of the University of Iowa,
which tracks drug resistance, said.
The FDA also approved Synercid to treat
Resistant HIV on rise
CHICAGO (AP) — Highly drug-resistant
strains of the AIDS virus are on the rise,
showing up in as many as 4.5 percent of
newly infected patients in two new studies.
“Resistance is slowly increasing,” Dr.
Roger J. Pomerantz, an expert not involved
with either study, said. “If you were looking
at this five years ago, you would see zero.”
The studies — published in today’s Jour
nal of the American Medical Association —
involve mostly gay white men. Resistance
may be more prevalent in other groups, such
as drug users and their sex partners, re
searchers said.
complicated skin infections caused by staph or
strep bacteria, opening its use potentially to
hundreds of thousands more patients.
Once thought to spread only in hospitals and
nursing homes, the government last month an
nounced the chilling discovery that four previ
ously healthy children had died from drug-resis
tant staph, and scores of other non-hospitalized
people have been sickened.
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topical storm
oods Florida
up OD -fl
behindliB MIAMI (AP) — TYopical Storm Harvey drenched
i cater.:: Florida’s Gulf Coast with more than 10 inches of rain
'0, fairyesterday, forcing schools to close, flooding homes and
he fret: businesses and playing havoc with travelers’ plans,
were MThe storm left streets in the small fishing village
secoiie.i of Everglades City under two feet of water as it
quickly moved across South Florida toward the At-
theh. r lantic Ocean yesterday.
y putRtff At 5 p.m. EDT, Harvey’s center was about 35 miles
Southwest of Palm Beach, with sustained winds of
je \. .vTabout 50 mph.
inr::»® In advance of the storm, schools were ordered
shut in such Gulf Coast counties as Hillsborough,
^Manatee, Sarasota and St. Lucie, mostly out of fear
ip \-- > oi street flooding. Some government offices also
?d ow : closed for the day.
•ride - m "We’ve^had up to 30 homes and businesses suffer
ild as.‘ &>nie flooding,” Ken Pineau, director of the Collier
clock County Emergency Operations Center in Naples, said.
I shoiMAt least five Florida airports reported flight can-
DonsifcfeHations, and delays were common throughout
M state.
JThe storm dumped 10 inches of rain on Collier Coun-
fo Jiand an inch on Miami-Dade County, on Florida’s At-
■tic Coast, where two possible tornadoes were spotted.
Monastery evacuated
as Big Sur fire spreads
r r a _i:r r a mrinlrc 3H£>rl\7 ^nH Hirl not WAnt tC
LUCIA, Calif. (AP) — Benedictine
monks who maintain a vow of silence and
bake fruitcakes to support their monastery
were among the hundreds forced to flee
wildfires that raced up the coastal moun
tains of Big Sur yesterday.
Eight monks remained behind to help
firefighters save their monastery, the New
Camadoli Hermitage, which is reachable
only by a narrow, twisting road and offers
stunning views of the ocean.
Given Big Sur’s often-changing winds,
firefighters said the blazes could climb a
ridge and sweep down onto the property
within hours.
“If it comes up nice and slow, things
will be cool,” Irene Kahn, a volunteer
with the Big Sur Fire Department, said. “If
it comes up in a firestorm, then things
could get interesting.”
Some of the monks who stayed behind
were cutting brush, the Rev. Romuald
Duscher, acting superior for the 32
monks, said. He does not maintain a vow
of silence. He said he had to stay, espe
cially since some of the monastery’s
monks are elderly and did not want to
leave their home.
“This is our home,” Duscher said. “Also,
we feel we can help.”
The monks, whose monastery is perched
1,300 feet above the Pacific Ocean about 140
miles south of San Francisco, support a con
templative life by selling fruitcakes and date-
nut cakes over the Internet.
The monastery also caters to tourists
seeking a refuge from the wired world, and
is so popular that reservations have to be
made months in advance.
One of the evacuees, Allison Howard,
33, had planned to spend a week at the
monastery and was forced to flee after just
one night.
“I wanted to be there,” Howard, who
had hoped for a respite from what she
described as a stressful life in Los Ange
les, where she studies acupuncture and
herbal medicine, said. “It’s so peaceful
and wonderful.”
Lightning-caused fires have burned
more than 78,000 acres in Northern Cali
fornia’s forests during the past few days.
Q ORDER OF OMEGA Q
Attention all Aggie Greeks who
. 1) Have 60 hours or registered for their 60th hour ' .
2) Have a 3.0 GPR or higher
You are ELIGIBLE to be a member in the
ORDER OF
GA
Applications are available at our cubicle in Koldus
and are due back at the cubicle by |
5:00 p.m. Friday, September 24,1999
Everyone who turns in an application needs to
sign up for an interview.
* There will be two optional informational meetings on
September 22, 1999 in MSC 229
Info. I: 8:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Info. II: 8:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
For more information please call:
Eric Berger, VP Membership Hilton Gottschalk, President
696-4721 696-2050
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No long distance chaises from the Lone Star State to all 50 states
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Anytime M i n u t e s / M o n t h
250
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