HWN Suggests

Fluoroquinolones Are Too Risky for Common Infections

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising against prescribing fluoroquinolones, a group of antibiotics that includes drugs such as Cipro and Levaquin, to treat three common illnesses —bronchitis, sinus infections, and urinary tract infections. The agency issued the new recommendations after a safety review revealed that fluoroquinolones can cause disabling and potentially permanent side effects that affect the tendons, muscles, joints, nerves, and central nervous system.

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 The Cipro conundrum: updated guidelines not completely translated to practice

In the past, ciprofloxacin was 100% sensitive to the pathogens causing the diarrhoea and hence enjoyed a golden period. However, these days there are concerns that ciprofloxacin may no longer be able to cover 100% of pathogens especially in regions in which resistance to Campylobacter is common. Despite the fact that there is adequate knowledge about resistance to fluroquinolones, especially ciprofloxacin in South and South-East Asia, we still find that people are carrying ciprofloxacin as the go-to drug for travellers’ diarrhoea.

 The dark side of antibiotic ciprofloxacin

The use of ciprofloxacin and other antibiotics of the class of fluoroquinolones may be associated with disruption of the normal functions of connective tissue, including tendon rupture, tendonitis and retinal detachment. These observations reported in a number of journals resulted in the drugs currently having a black box warning physicians and patients of the potential deleterious side effects.

Articles of Interest

Cipro joins the ‘black box’ club

The club may not be as elite as it once was -- or perhaps, in an ideal world, should be -- but the Food and Drug Administration has decided Cipro and its ilk deserve to be members.

Floxed By Cipro: 11 People Share Stories of Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

To be floxed by Cipro simply means you’re experiencing the toxic side effects of the antibiotic, which are categorized as fluoroquinolones. Fluoroquinolone toxicity is capable of leaving potentially permanent disabling, crippling side effects involving damage to the nervous system, tendon rupture, damage to muscles, joint damage, and in some cases death.

From Cough to Cane: The Case against Cipro

Though we're still in the early stages of our lawsuit representing patients who suffered tendon ruptures as a claimed side effect of Cipro, we are heartened to see the media warning consumers of the potential dangers of this type of antibiotic, more formally called fluoroquinolones.

How Special Is Cipro?

Everybody loves Cipro. In the aftermath of deadly bioterrorist attacks on U.S. soil, many people are suspected of hoarding it, or even gulping it, and supplies at pharmacies are running out. As NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw--himself the target of one of the mail attacks--put it: "In Cipro we trust." But some scientists warn that the obsession is unwarranted and may backfire.

I can’t walk...

Smith started searching on social media for other people experiencing trouble after taking Cipro. She soon found what she discovered is a growing network of people around the world who say they’re living with symptoms from tendonitis to nervous system issues, to pain that can be hard to manage and often dismissed by providers.

The Dangers of Fluoroquinolones

In drugs like Cipro and Levaquin, scientists have developed a group of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. The liberal use of this extremely potent, wide spectrum antibiotics poses a major threat to our microbiome.

Wicked: The untold story of ciprofloxacin

To limit the collateral damage and the rise in antibiotic resistance caused by fluoroquinolones, healthcare providers and patients are now encouraged to use this class of antibiotics as responsibly as possible. For treatment of uncomplicated cystitis, nonfluoroquinolone agents, such as nitrofurantoin, fosfomycin (limited availability in the US), and pivmecillinam (not available in the US), are often safe and effective. These antimicrobial agents are considered first-line therapy for UTIs, while fluoroquinolones should be reserved, when possible, for more serious conditions, such as pyelonephritis (kidney infection) or acute diverticulitis (colon infection].

Ciprofloxacin vs Levofloxacin: Are They The Same Thing?

A systematic review compared the effectiveness of Levofloxacin vs Ciprofloxacin for UTIs. They found that Levofloxacin showed efficacy in treating UTIs, but statistical significance in comparison to Ciprofloxacin was not established.

Doctors prescribing antibiotics for gonorrhea that no longer work

GPs give patients ciprofloxacin, which has not been recommended since 2005, raising fears that drug-resistant forms of sexually transmitted disease will spread.

Drug of the Moment: Cipro

At first glance it looks like the greatest marketing coup of all time: In the midst of escalating public anxiety about anthrax, one pharmaceutical company looks set to rake in huge profits from its superstar antibiotic, Cipro, which also happens to be the only FDA-approved treatment for inhalational anthrax.

Is Levofloxacin as Active as Ciprofloxacin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa?

The activity of levofloxacin was equal to that of ciprofloxacin (75.3%) but was more active than ofloxacin (58.1%). Moreover, the MIC values of levofloxacin did not show any statistical difference using two different inocula. Levofloxacin shows an excellent bactericidal activity being generally within one doubling dilution of the MIC.

Levofloxacin Versus Ciprofloxacin in the Treatment of Urinary Tract Infections: Evidence-Based Analysis

Fluoroquinolones, represented by levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, are widely used for treatment of UTIs. However, it remains controversial for the comparison between the 2 drugs, which propelled us to conduct the first evidence-based research on this topic.

Obama: The Cipro's in the mail

Mail carriers will be on the front lines of America's response to a bioterrorist attack under instructions President Barack Obama issued Wednesday. In an executive order, Obama designated the U.S. Postal Service as the mechanism by which antibiotics will be distributed in the event a terrorist or enemy nation tries to use a biological agent to take out a large swath of the U.S. population.

Resources

Ciprofloxacin

Ciprofloxacin is a bactericidal antibiotic of the fluoroquinolone drug class. It inhibits DNA replication by inhibiting bacterial DNA topoisomerase and DNA-gyrase. Of the fluoroquinolone class, ciprofloxacin is the most potent against gram-negative bacilli bacteria (notably, the Enterobacteriaceae such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., and Neisseria).

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Levaquin/levofloxacin and Cipro are in the fluoroquinolone drug class. That drug class has a black box warning for tendon ruptures