The annual report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the spread of many devastating diseases -- including AIDS and Ebola -- may be blamed in great part on the overuse of antibiotics throughout the world. The report was issued after it convened its 49th annual session in the Palais des Nations, Geneva, from 20-25 May 1996.

According to WHO Director-General Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, "The optimism of a relatively few years ago that many of these diseases could be brought under control has led to a fatal complacency. This complacency is now costing millions of lives."

The report lists several other critical factors, including poverty and overcrowding, but singles out "the uncontrolled and inappropriate use of antibiotics," as one of the primary reasons for the outbreak of drug-resistant strains of infectious diseases.

"They are used by too many people to treat the wrong kind of infections at the wrong dosage and for the wrong period of time," the report states. The overuse of antibiotics has been shown to weaken the body's natural immune system.

The news should not have surprised anyone, since there is evidence that the medical profession knew the risks of over-prescribing antibiotics more than a quarter-century ago!

The May 1971 issue of Drug Notes, edited by Paul G. H. Wolber, M.D., contained an article on antibiotic overuse.

"The general prophylactic value of antibiotic therapy has been questioned by informed clinicians; its effectiveness in warding off infections in most clinical situations has never been proved. Conversely," the article reported, "there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the incidence of serious infection is greater in patients treated prophylactically with broad-spectrum antibiotics than in those not so treated."

One startling illustration of this was discussed.

A hospital in Glasgow reluctantly discontinued both prophylactic and therapeutic antibiotic therapy when it was suggested that an outbreak of Klebsiella infections were related to alterations in bronchial flora as a result of the antibiotics. As soon as the antibiotics were discontinued, the incidents of chest and urinary cross-infections decreased.

"Within one month, the incidence of urinary cross infection had fallen to zero," the article reported, "and the incidence of chest infection due to Klebsiella was reduced to 2 percent."

What stunned the medical staff was an unexpected side benefit of the "no antibiotics" period: the incidence of all infections was reduced. After just 10 weeks, the respiratory infection rate fell from 45% to 15% and the urinary infection rate from 21% to 8 percent.

"This experience and other reports relating to antibiotic overuse suggest the age of antibiotic miracles may be over," the article concluded. "There is little question that many infections resolve in spite of rather than because of antibiotic therapy; conversely, the primary etiologic factor in many infections attributed to other causes is the misuse or overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics."

It is interesting -- though no doubt useless -- to speculate what the state of the world's health would be today if the medical community had heeded those warnings 25 years ago.