To the growing list of undesirable side effects resulting from treatment
with antibiotics, Manhattan's Dr. Jerome Weiss last week added one that
most patients may prefer not to talk about, though it can be both
painful and serious: antibiotic diarrhea. It is, Weiss told the
Michigan Academy of General Practice in Detroit, “a new entity.”
Besides high frequency of bowel movements, symptoms include distressing
itching around the anus, nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal cramps. Any antibiotic—perhaps any drug used to kill bacteria—might cause this
disorder said Dr. Weiss, but most often to blame are the
“broad-spectrum” antibiotics such as aureomycin, terramycin,
Chloromycetin. The doctor may be using these wisely against an
infection for which they are known to be effective, or unwisely against
virus” diseases in which they are not likely to be of any use. Either
way the antibiotics kill off many of the bacteria normally found in a
healthy intestinal tract. In so doing, they disturb the balance of
nature and leave the depopulated gut as a breeding ground for yeastlike
fungi, especially one called Monilla albicans. “The patients were assured by their physicians,” said Gastroenterologist
Weiss “that the upset and pruritus [itching] were only temporary and
would subside. After a week of these distressing symptoms, they would
be given some of the routine pectate preparations and more reassurance.
By the end of the third week after having been starved, given anti-
spasmodics and various internal and external medications to no avail,
they sought the aid of the gastroenterologist.” In some cases, especially where the trouble was a simpler disturbance in
the balance of ordinary colon bacilli, Dr. Weiss found that acidophilus
milk did the trick. More often, however, he had to use an ion-exchange
resin with silicates and eventually had to beef this up with
phthalysulfacetamide, an intestinal antiseptic,
and—ironically—another antibiotic, Polymixin-B. The intestine is not the only organ troubled by the Monilia fungus. This
microorganism was first found in the throat , also
occurs regularly in the vagina. Many women who take aureomycin or
related antibiotics develop a stubborn inflammation of the vagina and
perineal region. Sometimes the organism spreads over large areas and
reaches the lungs or brain heart or kidneys. There have been cases in
which a child's entire body has been covered with itchy inflammation.
In treating such cases of moniliasis, still another antibiotic has been
found to help undo the harm wrought by other antibiotics—nystatin
, which has come into general use only this year. Too often, doctors give antibiotics to victims of virus infections, in
the vain hope that they may do some immediate good, and to ward off a
later infection by the bacteria moving in on weakened tissues.
