Obstacles To Success

The WHO Global Strategy alluded to a major obstacle to solving health problems. It is the profit motive - money. The Bible says that the love of it is responsible for "all sorts of injurious things." (1Timothy 6:9, 10) WHO urges: " Interactions with the pharmaceutical industry must also be considered, including appropriate control of the access of sales representatives to clinical staff and monitoring industry-sponsored educational programs for providers."

Drug companies have aggressively presented their products to doctors. Now they do so directly to the public through RV advertising . This has evidently contributed to the overuse of drugs, which, in turn, has been a major factor in the proliferation of drug-resistant germs.

In its chapter on the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals, the WHO Global Strategy states: " Veterinarians in so e countries earn as much as 40% or more of their income by the sale of drugs, so there is a disincentive to limit antimicrobial use." As is well documented, resistant germs have emerged and flourished because of the inordinate use of antibiotics.

The production of antibiotics is, in fact, astounding. In the United States alone, some 50 million pounds of antibiotics are produced annually! Of the world's total production, only about half is used for people. The rest is either sprayed on crops or fed to animals. Antibiotics are commonly mixed with the feed of animals raised for food to speed their growth.

Next time: What You Can Do