The bad news is that no one knows how long Synercid will be effective at rescuing gravely ill patients. And it's the Clinton administration's flawed antibiotics policies that are largely to blame.
Bacteria develop resistance, and scientists are discovering just how fast that occurs.
In 1987 antibiotic-resistant pneumococci bacteria were almost unknown. By 1997 as many as 40 percent of pneumococcus cultures were resistant to penicillin and other commonly used antibiotics. And in one dangerous strain of salmonella that is resistant to at least five antibiotics, resistance has grown from less than one percent in 1979 to 34 percent today. Likewise, Synercid's effectiveness may diminish quickly, because a close cousin, Virginiamycin, has been fed to poultry and hogs for at least 20 years to promote growth. Unfortunately, bacteria that develop resistance to Virginiamycin also are resistant to Synercid.