Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson asked Americans not to buy and hoard the pharmaceuticals, although there is some controversy over whether the country has enough drugs on hand. Claude Allen, HHS deputy secretary, told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs that part of $1.5 billion the department has requested, would be used to increase the pharmaceutical stockpile of anthrax treatment. The $1 billion-a-year drug, manufactured by German drugmaker Bayer AG, has been used in the United States since 1987 to treat a variety of infections. The Food and Drug Administration approved it for anthrax treatment last year. Fear of anthrax infection has taken hold across the country and even in Europe where several recent scares have been reported. People Want the Drug Dr. Daisy Merey, who runs a family practice in West Palm Beach, said she prescribed Cipro for several people who wanted it around just in case they got sick. "A lot of people who are coming in for checkups are also asking about Cipro," Merey told Reuters. "We don't recommend taking antibiotics as a preventive measure because there are side effects. If people really want it just to have in case something happens, we'll prescribe it to them." One reason doctors don't like to have people procuring prescriptions for Cipro online is that it's a very strong antibiotic that is generally reserved for tough cases, said Dr. Nancy Snyderman on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "It's not even a first-line drug of choice for most infections," Snyderman said. "This is a kind of medication you use when other things fail." Since anthrax doesn't widely disperse itself, there is no need to stock up on Cipro, said Stephen Ostroff, chief epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "And in all of the current situations that we're aware of, it's really mostly been confined to people who've had direct contact with these contaminated envelopes," Ostroff told Good Morning America.
Related antibiotics
Amoxicillin Trimox Adoxa Zithromax AUGMENTIN Bactrim Myambutol E-mycin
