This is amazing. Antibiotics are given as if they were candy. This should be given to all pregnant women with the admonition – “No drugs in pregnancy unless absolutely, positively needed for survival.”

From the article (see footer): “The study is important because it looked at drugs that have been used for decades without large studies of their safety in pregnant women, said Dr. Michael Katz of the March of Dimes.”

Study Links Some Antibiotics With Birth Defects; Others Appear Safe For Fetus

There has never been a large analysis of antibiotic use in pregnancy. It was finally done and it found that mothers of babies with birth defects were more likely than mothers with healthy babies to report taking two types of antibiotics during pregnancy: sulfa drugs (brand names include Thiosulfil Forte and Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantoins (brand names include Furadantin and Macrobid).

November’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine had the study.

The women were interviewed by phone from six weeks to two years after their pregnancies. Those who remembered taking antibiotics during the month before conception through the first three months of pregnancy were identified as exposed to antibiotics.Birth defects linked to sulfa drugs included rare brain and heart problems, and shortened limbs. Those linked to nitrofurantoins (ny-troh-fyoor-AN’-toyns) included heart problems and cleft palate. The drugs seemed to double or triple the risk, depending on the defect.

Source: Crider KS, Cleves MA, Reefhuis J et al. Antibacterial Medication Use During Pregnancy and Risk of Birth Defects .National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(11):978-985.

When the headlines for the bird flu came it the WHO claimed it was going to kill over 150 million. So far 262 died from it over a span of 7 years.

When the swine flu headlines came out of Mexico City it sounded like the world was coming to an end. When the dust cleared it was no more than a mild flu and all the numbers were inflated.

This stuff from Ukraine sounds the same. Let’s see what happens when the dust clears.
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Tedd

UPDATE: Here is a new tidbit I just came across regarding the situation in Ukraine:

Ukraine Swine Flu Reality Check – Deadly Political Games And Fear Marketing
F.William Engdahl, Author
Latest reports of what is being called a deadly Swine Flu outbreak in Ukraine according to on sight reports appear to be a political concoction by a threatened government to avoid election defeat and possibly declare martial law. The details indicate how convenient the current WHO “Swine Flu” H1N1 “pandemic” scare is for regimes in trouble. Worldwide media reports in recent days have painted a picture of Ukraine as being under the Black Plague or worse. One of the most egregious panic-mongers has been Pittsburgh Swine Flu “mapper” Dr Henry Niman who earlier falsely predicted H5N1 Avian Flu would mutate into a deadly human-to-human pandemic. It didn’t. Niman’s map of the spread of alleged H1N1 Swine Flu since April has given WHO, the US Government and CNN and major media a convenient graphic to create the image of a new type of “bubonic plague” threatening mankind unless we react with massive doses of untested vaccines from such unscrupulous pharma bigs like GlaxoSmithKline or Novartis or Roche with its dangerous Tamiflu drugs. Since Washington financed and organized the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought a pro-NATO Victor Yushchenko in as President, Ukraine politics has been a geopolitical tug-of war between Moscow and Washington. How the current political games around allegations of H1N1 panic play into that tug of war is not yet clear. The degree of fraud, deceit, official coverup and outright criminal endangerment of the broad population by the current Swine Flu hysteria is seemingly without precedent. One Click Note: This is a Must Read. Those attempting to sensationalise Ukraine Swine Flu look entirely ridiculous.

F.William Engdahl, In These New Times