Below is the paste from the above site. I urge anyone to consider augmentin as part of ANY bacterial TX. NOT for the penny...but for the cluvic acid...I tested it and IT DOES WORK. I even know my old doctor fed me augmentin like it was candy yrs ago when I got re-infected and he had no clue...his direct quote...I dont know what you have...but augmentin will kill everything...BTW he dosed it in the overdose range.
Heres the cut and paste.
Study: Old drugs might give TB a 1-2 punch
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By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer - Thu Feb 26, 2:00 pm ET
WASHINGTON - Scientists might have found a way to deal drug-resistant tuberculosis a one-two punch using two old, safe antibiotics -- and studies in ill patients could begin later this year.
TB is one of the world's oldest killers, and the lung disease still claims the lives of more than 1.5 million people globally every year. The bacteria that cause TB are fast becoming impervious to many treatments, drug resistance that is seen worldwide but is a particular problem in parts of Asia and Africa. While typically the TB doesn't respond to two top treatments, an emerging threat is so-called extensively drug-resistant disease, or XDR-TB, that is virtually untreatable by remaining options.
So researchers are frantically hunting new approaches, including taking a fresh look at some old drugs.
TB bacteria contain a certain enzyme that renders the penicillin family of antibiotics drugs useless.
"It chews them up and spits them out and they never get to see their target," explained biochemist John Blanchard of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine.
But there are different antibiotics that can block that enzyme, called beta-lactamase. One, named clavulanate, has long been sold as part of the two-drug Augmentin combination that's widely used for various children's infections.
So Blanchard's team tested whether administering clavulanate might make TB vulnerable to other antibiotics -- and found a combination that in laboratory tests blocked the growth of 13 different drug-resistant TB strains.
The combo: Clavulanate to drop TB's shield, plus a long-sold injected antibiotic -- meropenem, part of that penicillin-style family -- that then attacks the bacteria.
The findings are reported Thursday in the journal Science.
What happens in a lab doesn't necessarily work in people. Still, the findings were so compelling that two teams of U.S. researchers -- from the National Institutes of Health and New York's Montefiore Medical Center -- already are planning small patient studies in South Korea and South Africa. They hope to begin those studies later this year.
"It's very clever," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. When one drug knocks out the TB microbe's defense, "that leaves the original drug with the capability of doing what it's supposed to be doing."
Posted by asus (Member # 13881) on :
Just and FYI, drugs with clavulanic acid seem to be particularly hard on GI bacteria in my experience. Not saying you shouldn't take it if you need it, but be especially vigilant looking for GI issues. I was on both Timentin and Augmentin over 4 weeks, my gut hasn't been the same since. :-(
Posted by Geneal (Member # 10375) on :
Just beware of horriffic yeast issues on augmentin.
Gave me thrush so bad I couldn't see my tongue.
I was given this after a Levaquin IV push in ER following a cat bite.