Sir, - Your recent article on the dangers of overuse of antibiotics reviews some matters of crucial importance on the health of mankind. Some historical perspective is relevant.
Louis Pasteur (b. 1822) is reputed to have explained and demonstrated that "germs" are" the cause of many diseases. His contemporary, Pierre Be champ, with a degree in pharmacy and doctorates in science and medicine performed many experiments with microbes, and observed that they become active in tissue under certain conditions and reduce the tissue to simple chemicals. He concluded that these conditions in human tissue are the main causes in disease epidemics, and the microbes alone do not explain the disease, otherwise everybody who is exposed would contract the disease.
This concept was further explained by the homeopath and medical scientist, Dr H. H. Reckeweg (b. 1905). He developed the theory that toxins in the body tissues were the cause of many diseases, and these are the conditions which encourage the activation of bacteria, which help to release the toxin deposits in tissues for further elimination in a complex process called inflammation. Thus, the bacteria are associated in a biologically goal oriented attempt towards detoxification and hence healing, but they are not the cause of the inflammation. The fact that bacteria thought to be the cause of disease are found in people who are perfectly healthy supports this theory. (Some bacteria such as legionella and salmonella produce dangerous toxins and are themselves a major problem if conditions are right for their proliferation.)
However, the theories and approach of Pasteur prevailed and vaccines, and later, antibiotics. were developed to combat the microbes. In the 1950s and 1960s complacency about disease was rife because it was believed that drugs and vaccinations could answer every problem - the future looked rosy. However, in the 1980s, outbreaks of bacterial infections which had developed resistance to antibiotics had become commonplace, and now diseases such as tuberculosis are returning with a vengeance. It is fortunate, not a disaster, that bacteria are mutating in this way, otherwise there could be the eventual destruction of all the thousands of strains of bacteria which are necessary for our health, and our environment, in the wake of tons of antibiotics being produced each year. The real disaster is the fact that the grim warning of reemerging diseases as a result of a failed "magic bullet" theory is unrecognised, and we are informed by Professor Foster in a letter to your paper (June 4th) "there is a great deal of research both into novel approaches to discovering the next generation of antibiotics, and into new vaccines".
So it would seem that the war against the microbes will go on, when really we should be working with the microbes and all of nature, as is done in true preventive medicine such as nutrition, herbalism, homeopathy and acupuncture among many other approaches, along with the protection of the environment.
It is reputed that Pasteur said on his deathbed "the germ is nothing; the ground (environment) is everything". What has happened since is history; if only we could learn from it. - Yours, etc.,
BSc, Dip Chem Eng,
Lie Ac, Dip Stats,
Leopardstown Drive,
Dublin.