I Just Love This Stuff

One of the older antibiotics known is tetracycline.  Long used as a treatment for syphilis, chlamydia, mycoplasma, intestinal protozoa, cholera, and acne; it is old enough now that a lot of organisms have developed resistance to its effects.  

From Cecil's Textbook of Medicine:

C. psittaci is susceptible to tetracyclines and macrolides but resistant to sulfonamides. Tetracycline has had the greatest clinical use. Psittacosis is the most gratifying of all chlamydial diseases to treat. Defervescence and marked symptomatic relief of systemic signs occur within 24 to 48 hours after starting tetracycline 500 mg four times a day or doxycycline 100 mg twice a day. Treatment should be continued for 10 to 21 days.

"The most gratifying of all chlamydial diseases to treat"?  Frankly, I never though of treating infections as gratifying, but I suppose it is.

In this post, I discuss, not the gratification of obliterating bacteria, but the unexpected finding that an antibiotic can be used to treat osteoarthritis.  It is the unexpectedness of it that spurs me to engage in armchair musings about the nature of medical thought.  Continue reading here.

categories: science, medicine, armchair musings
Technorati tags: medicine, arthritis