Cipro

A handful of sickos--who may or may not be tied to Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein--has managed to ratchet up the country's already high level of wartime anxiety by mailing anthrax-dusted letters to key government and media centers. Besides killing more innocent people, which seems to be their specialty, these terrorists and their sinister little biobombs are breeding a climate of paranoia and misinformation about the dangers of anthrax and the need for Bayer's antibiotic drug Cipro.

As senior pharmacy editor Diane West so ably points out in her story in this issue, there are at least a couple of dangerous myths surrounding the current stampede by many Americans to get Cipro. One is the fact that the drug isn't unique in its ability to treat inhaled or cutaneous anthrax infection -- if taken early. Other antibiotics apparently are just as effective.

Indeed, said one advisor to Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson who was quoted in The Wall Street Journal, "Those implementing the [anthrax treatment and Cipro acquisition] program have forgotten the fact that penicillin and doxycycline are equally as good" at treating the condition.

"We must reinforce this," said Donald Henderson, who also referred in an Oct. 24 Journal story to the "hysteria" by consumers, companies and government agencies to obtain Cipro.

That hasn't stopped the governments of the United States and Canada from stockpiling Cipro, or from cutting deals with Bayer to acquire the drug at a far cheaper, but still-expensive price of around a dollar a pill. It hasn't slowed demand for supplies of Cipro from online pharmacy retailers. And it hasn't ended the pressure many fearful Americans are exerting on their physicians to obtain a prescription for the drug.

But there's a more dangerous myth at work, as well: that a majority of Americans should be taking "preventive" doses of antibiotics or, even worse, plying their children with them. What better way to breed drug-resistant supergerms than this? And what a sad legacy for America, if the current threat of bioterrorism leaves many patients even more at risk for new generations of infectious diseases that no longer respond to treatment with antibiotics?

In short, the United States is awash in the current anthrax scare. But posting signs in the windows that tell already anxious customers 'We have Cipro"--as some pharmacies are reportedly doing--doesn't help. On the contrary, it heightens tensions and feeds the hysteria surrounding the current anthrax scare.

Pharmacists, of all health care professionals, should be on the front lines of a nationwide effort to explode myths about anthrax and antibiotics. Who is in a better position to educate patients and calm irrational fears? And who better to help prevent a nationwide rush to consume Cipro and other antibiotics as an anthrax "preventive" by dispensing sound information, as well as medicines?

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has issued a set of guidelines for pharmacists to help answer consumers' questions about the use of Cipro and other antibiotics. Those guidelines wisely point up the dangers of over prescribing, as well as the potential side effects some patients could experience with Cipro and other meds.

Drug retailers would do well to post those guidelines in their pharmacies. But they can do more. Pharmacy leaders talk constantly about the important role pharmacists can play as partners in a comprehensive community health care system. This is a perfect time to prove it.

To me, the anthrax scare cries out for the forging of closer links between physicians and pharmacists, as partners in a nationwide effort to inform patients and shed light on a subject that breeds fear and dangerous misinformation. And what better time for all health care professionals to work together to craft a common message for patients about the proper use of medications and the dangers of overprescribing?

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group