Preventing Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

I was talking with my boyfriend about yesterday’s post, “Researching Cures for Fluoroquinolone Toxicity,” and he brought up a good point:

Yes, a cure would be nice, but fluoroquinolone toxicity is just so preventable – prevention seems like a better strategy. 

Yes, we (as a society) could pour tons of money, time, resources, etc. into finding a cure for fluoroquinolone toxicity, OR we could stop floxing people and prevent them from needing said cure in the first place.

As Benjamin Franklin wisely noted, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

For those of us who have been hurt by Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin, or Floxin/ofloxacin, a cure is very much needed and wanted. We know our poison, now where’s our antidote? It’s a reasonable and appropriate question for those who have been hurt, but I believe that prevention of damage will help more people than a cure.

Dear doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and everyone else in the medical system: STOP prescribing fluoroquinolones unless your patient is fighting a verified, life-threatening infection that is not responding to other drugs! 

People are suffering from disabling fluoroquinolone toxicity reactions after taking Cipro when there are other viable treatments and/or when antibiotics aren’t even needed.

People are regularly prescribed Cipro to treat travelers’ diarrhea and some of those people experience debilitating adverse reactions to it. Their reaction and their suffering are avoidable though, because travelers’ diarrhea is treatable with more benign methods – probiotics, hydration, and Pepto Bismol should do the trick. Most cases of fluoroquinolone toxicity due to taking Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox or Floxin for travelers’ diarrhea are completely PREVENTABLE!

Even the FDA has acknowledged that the risks of using fluoroquinolones outweigh the benefits when treating sinus infections, bronchitis, and uncomplicated UTIs:

“FDA is advising that the serious side effects associated with fluoroquinolone antibacterial drugs generally outweigh the benefits for patients with acute sinusitis, acute bronchitis, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections who have other treatment options. For patients with these conditions, fluoroquinolones should be reserved for those who do not have alternative treatment options.” (Source – straight from the FDA.)

Everyone who is suffering from fluoroquinolone toxicity after taking Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, or Floxin as treatment for a sinus infection, bronchitis, or an uncomplicated urinary tract infection was hurt even though more benign antibiotics (or time, assuming that one’s immune system is functioning properly) could have been used.

Many cases of prostatitis aren’t bacterial, yet many men are given long courses of fluoroquinolone antibiotics to “treat” their prostatitis. In case it needs to be said, fluoroquinolone antibiotics are no better than placebos at treating non-bacterial prostatitis. Too many urologists are prescribing dangerous drugs (fluoroquinolones) that are no better than placebos, and hurting many men in the process.

Many people are prescribed Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox or Floxin to treat non-bacterial bladder pain. Interstitial Cystitis (IC) is a great imitator of bladder infections, and fluoroquinolones do NOTHING to treat IC pain–they may even make it worse.

All the pain and suffering that comes with fluoroquinolone toxicity, and there’s a lot of it, is SO PREVENTABLE for so many people! Remember: DO NO HARM! 

According to FDA figures, 26.9 MILLION prescriptions for fluoroquinolones were disbursed in 2011 alone (they haven’t updated their figures since 2011). Too many of those prescriptions were inappropriate. Many of them were for ailments that weren’t even bacterial infections.

“‘Antibiotic therapies are used for approximately 56 percent of inpatients in U.S. hospitals, but are found to be inappropriate in nearly half of these cases, and many of these failures are connected with inaccurate diagnoses,’ study author Dr. Greg Filice said in a news release from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.” (source)

Everyone in the medical system needs to recognize that adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones are disabling, often permanent, and that they look a lot like a multi-symptom, chronic illness. Unfortunately, at this time, there is no way to tell who will have an adverse reaction to a fluoroquinolone, so, as far as doctors should be concerned, EVERYONE is at risk. Fluoroquinolones are dangerous drugs, and their benefits do not outweigh their risks for many infections. They should ONLY be prescribed for treatment of verified, life-threatening infections that cannot be treated with more benign drugs.

If those basic rules were followed, there would be significantly fewer “floxies.”

Prevention is the answer to this problem.

A cure would be nice, but prevention is better.

The FDA acknowledges that fluoroquinolones have potentially permanent adverse effects, and that their risks outweigh their benefits for many patients/conditions. Now the FDA needs to put some policy changes behind this knowledge, and make sure that fluoroquinolones are not prescribed inappropriately.

Enacting policies that cut fluoroquinolone prescriptions by about 90% would be a good place to start.

Yes, there are cases when fluoroquinolones are the appropriate drugs to use – when a patient is facing death without the drugs. But a large portion of the prescriptions being written for Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, and Floxin are completely inappropriate. A large portion of the pain, suffering, and destruction caused by fluoroquinolones is preventable.

The FDA is capable of enacting policies that prevent many cases of fluoroquinolone toxicity. They have the information, they have the power, they need to do what is right –

Stop unnecessary fluoroquinolone prescriptions! Prevent disabling fluoroquinolone toxicity!

There are safer drugs available in most cases.