From Ann

Mail on Sunday 28.10.18 “COMMON ANTIBIOTIC DOCTORS SAY COULD GIVE YOU ORGAN FAILURE”

Doctors from European Medicines Agency (EMA) warn that some antibiotics, prescribed to more than a million Britons for chest & urinary infections, are causing devastating permanent side effects, including kidney failure, & damage to the brain’s nerves. They say the drugs including ciprofloxacin & levofloxacine are dished out far too readily, when they should be used as a last resort.  Evidence shows side effects occur more often than previously thought & can be life-changing.  Common complications include inflamed or ruptured tendons, nerve damage in the brain (leading to depression, anxiety & insomnia) digestive problems, fatigue & damage to major organs & joints.  These drugs are fluoroquinolones & quinolone antibiotics.  They can penetrate tissues throughout the body, including the nervous & musculoskeletal system. “These antibiotics were originally developed to treat major life-threatening infections including sepsis, E.coli & anthrax” explains Dr Neal Millar, orthopaedic surgeon based at University of Glasgow’s Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation.  Latest figures estimate that last year over 675,000 of these drugs were prescribed in UK by GPs with a similar number administered in hospitals.  Adverse reactions on tendons for example have been known about since the early 2000s.  Dr Millar speaks to an ever-growing number of patients who have been “floxed” as it’s called in the support group community & suffered tendonitis where the cells break down. Miriam Knight co-founded “Quinolone Toxicity Support.”