Monsanto and Staph infection

[TimeTraveler]

To whom it may concern,

 

I am seeking to obtain information about the possibility of a lawsuit of myself vs. the Monsanto corporation. The Monsanto corporation is the corporation that introduced a product called Posilac. Posilac is a genetically engineered supplement given to diary cows to increase their milk production. Their claim on this product is this:

 

“ POSILAC® bovine somatotropin has become one of the leading dairy animal health products in the United States and many other countries. Supplementing dairy cows with bovine somatotropin safely enhances milk production and serves as an important tool to help dairy producers improve the efficiency of their operations.”

 

However this is not true, and they know this is not true. Here are some excerpts, quoted parts are allegedly from an FDA document, from a story I found at this link: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3665

 

OBSERVATION 1

"There is a failure to thoroughly review the failure of a batch or any of its components to meet any of its specifications whether or not the batch has been thoroughly distributed."

"Specifically, the corrective actions implemented after the investigation of nine sterility failures reported since 2001 (3 for 2001, 3 for 2002, and 3 for 2003) for Posilac injection or for the lyophilized active ingredient (Sometribove zinc) have not been effective in preventing reoccurrence. In five instances (2 for 2001, 1 for 2002, and 2 for 2003) the organism was identified as Propionibacterium acnes; Staphylococcus species have been identified in three instances and in one instance (in 2002) Bacillus pumilus was found. Propionibacterium was found in environmental samples of the manufacturing areas. Batches manufactured around the same period of time and under the same conditions of the affected lots have been released to the market."

OBSERVATION 2

"Equipment for adequate control over micro-organisms is not provided when appropriate for the manufacture, processing, packing or holding of a drug product."

It has been well reported that a new emerging species of bacteria has developed, immune to antibiotic treatment. Staphylococcus aureus plagues many American hospitals in this new outbreak. Could the etiology of the mother of all deadly staph infections be traced to a new genetically engineered version of staph, a superbug inadvertently produced by Monsanto and then introduced into the food supply? In 1989, such staphyloccus infections were unknown to hospitals. By 2002, nearly two-thirds of all hospital infections could be attributed to antibiotic-resistant staphlococcus infections.

 

 

What does this have to do with me? I have MRSA.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems. - (Source: http://www.cdc.gov)

 

I have been through 5 or 6 different antibiotics so far and nothing has been able to cure it. I have had this infection for more than 7 months. I won’t get into details about it because some parts might disgust you but I will say it has not been fun.

 

I do not know if the dairy I use or have used in the last year can be tied back to this product, I need an expert who knows about the location of diary and where it goes to see if this genetically engineered product has been at stores I purchase from.

 

I am seeking a lawsuit on a basis of principle and not to get rich. It is morally wrong to knowingly exploit a situation to make money when you know it is causing harm to humanity.

 

Staph infection is a serious issue. I do not know if I will live through it, I do not have insurance, nor can I afford to continue much more treatment options. I have 2 children and a wife and every time I look in their eyes I am worried I might be here in a year from now. Staph infection is no joke, here are some statistics:

 

“Staph infections can lead to pus-filled boils, pneumonia, kidney infection, heart damage or even septicemia, a deadly blood-borne immune system reaction that is the 10th- leading cause of death in the United States. Overall, 10 percent of staph infections are fatal, according to a CDC study of New York City hospitals. If the staph traveled to the patient's lungs and caused pneumonia, however, 25 percent died.”

 

From the POSILAC testimonials:

 

"I use POSILAC because it makes me money."

Fred Gore

Zephyrhills, Florida

 

If you have any advice, information or any comments that may help me please let me know.

 

If you wish to email me you can at JshAber@adelphia.net

[ed84c]

Bloody Hell.

 

Seriously good luck mate.

[coquina]

My mother died from a hospital staph infection.

 

She broke her hip and a prosthesis was installed. A staph infection developed between the inside of the femur and the prosthesis. The best treatment would have been to remove the prosthesis and leave it out for several months so they could get to the infection and have a better chance at curing it. She was 95, and there was no way she was going to survive a disarticulated hip for for months, so it was decided to try IV antibiotic therapy. She was sent to a nursing home for that, and while there, she developed ducubitus ulcers (bedsores) on the backs of her legs. They became infected with MRSA.

 

My mother was the toughest woman I have ever known. In all my 54 years I had never seen her shed a tear or cry out in pain. When her dressings were changed, you could here her scream from one end of the hospital to the other. She fought tooth and toenail for 3 months, but the infection went septic and she died.

 

I tried to sue for wrongful death, but was told by the best and most highly respected malpractice doctor in this part of the state that I could not win. I was told that the hospitals are full of staph infection and they proliferate despite the best efforts at sterilization (I took issue with that on these boards once before) I was told that old people have weakened immune systems, and are more prone to infection than others, I was also told that awards for wrongful death suits are based on the length of time a person could have been expected to live, had the incident not occurred. Mother had already exceeded the actuarial standards by 10 years.

 

My husband died just 3 months before mom's incident. I had an old friend who had once been premed, who I wrote to every night for support. On disk I have every email I wrote him, describing whatever horrifying events were happening during the day, and I have his replies.

 

If it could be proven that what Monsanto did had anything to do with my mother's agonizing illness and death, I am ready and willing to nail the SOB's to the wall.

[Phi for All]

I found a bit on garlic as a non-western medicinal cure for infections including MRSA. Not sure if you've gone that route or believe in it. Sometimes I think western medicine tries to fix one part without thinking about how it affects the rest of the body.

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/12/30/garlic_ingient_wipes_out_hospital_superbugs_in_tests.htm

 

Like Coquina, I lost a parent to infection. My father died at 84 from a massive systemic infection. On Thursday he was feeling fine. On Friday he had some tests run at a hospital. On Saturday he was back in the hospital feeling terrible and barely able to walk. We lost him Sunday morning.

 

I don't know much about lawsuits, I've never been the litigious sort. But, also like Coquina, if you can link this to Monsanto and find them guilty of trying to make money without thinking about how it affects the rest of the population, I say nail 'em.

[Skye]

I would imagine there wouldn't be any GE staph in the production process. E. coli would probably be used instead.

 

Even then, any additional chance of a resistant strain arising in a GE organism is going to vastly outweighed by the tiny scale GE is done on, compared to environmental selection for resistant strains in ag and med.

[coquina]

I searched the FDA website for Posilac and came up with the following pages:

 

http://google.fda.gov/search?restrict=&q=posilac&site=FDA&output=xml_no_dtd&client=FDA&access=p&lr=&ip=68.231.242.18&proxystylesheet=FDA&getfields=*&oe=&start=0

 

There are pages and pages of letters from people asking that the drug be withdrawn, but I did not find anything in the FDA's literature that indicated there was any problem with it.

 

I'm not saying it's not there - I just didn't find it.

[TimeTraveler]

Thanks guys and gals for the great responses.

 

Sandi I am so sorry to hear about your losses.

 

From my understanding Posilec has been removed as a product (I think voluntarily) sometime within the last 10 or so months. I need to do alot more research.

 

But what the procuct did was it was injected into a cow and caused the cow to produce more milk, well the first huge concern came when the cows started getting massive bladder infections after being injected. I seen some footage it looked pretty horrible, some of the cows utters were the size of basketballs and they could not walk.

 

Another thing apparently known about the product was in contained 52 minute traces of antibiotics, and when cows would produce the milk those traces of antibiotic were found in the milk.

 

People who drink that milk or eat/drink anything made from that milk would be recieving those minute traces of antibiotics which could have lowered peoples natural immune system to fight certain things (among them Staph).

 

Now staph is something that many many people have, it lives on peoples skin, but it is usually not able to cause infection because the body produces enough natural antibiotics to keep it at bay, however staph has the ability to mutate and resist antibiotics especially when it is exposed to them in small quantities.

 

So from my understanding, persons that drink these milk products become more at risk because the antibiotics in the milk allow the bacteria to be exposed to small traces of the antibiotics and they mutate, possibly to the point of them resisting your bodies own natural antibiotics and also most known antibiotics that could be used to fight staff.

 

Staph usually can only overpower an immune system if it is weak, in most cases newborn babies, the very elderly, people coming out of surgery, people with diabetes, kidney disease and a few other cases where the immune system gets very weak.

 

I'm 25, and before this pretty healthy. I have had no major medical condidtions that should have allowed my immune system to get weak enough to fight off staph.

 

Here is where I begin to wonder. Not only myself but many people I spent time with this last summer have all contracted staph infection. My wife, my wifes best friend, one of my friends, my wifes bestfriends newborn baby, my wifes bestfriends mother and sister, my wifes bestfriends husband, and a friend who visted us from california.

 

Staph is not usually contagious, like I said most people already have it on their skin, but why/how would so many people rather healthy people contract staph in the same area at close to the same time. Most of these people were able to get it taken care of with simple antibiotics and are fine now, I was actually the second person to get the infection of all these people. My friend that contracted it had to go through the IV treatment and $30,000 later he was able to get rid of it (He had insurance from his University)

 

I am the only one still left with it, and I cannot afford the IV antibiotic treatment, I have one more antibiotic option before the IV treatment is the only thing left that may work. I have already taken 5 or 6 different antibiotics and none have had any effect at all. My next option is a $1200 perscription, that I doubt I can afford but I might be able to get help from my freinds and family with that, and if that does not work the IV treatment will be the only western treatment left so I could very well be trying the treatment ideas that Phi for All proposed (Thanks by the way!).

 

Sandi, I don't know if monsanto would be able to be credited in your case but it is worth looking into. This company has been responsible for some pretty horrible acts. Awhile back an investigative report by a Fox news in Tampa team had a story to expose them and this drug for its possibility to cause staph infection, monsanto found out about it and threatened Fox news it would pull all advertising if the story was released. Their advertising to Fox news was something like $34 million a year. Obviously a story to fox news is not worth 34 million a year in advertising.

 

But the reporters were brave, when fox news asked them to drop the story they refused, when fox news threatened to fire them, they threatened to sue. They settled on re-writting the story, in cooperation with the Monsanto corp. but after 80 some odd re-writes and 8 months neither side was able to come to agreement on the story, these reporters were fired for no cause. They wrote a letter to the head of fox news who fired back making an admitation to them being fired over the story. They went to court with fox news, three years later they won 425,000.

 

Fox news appealed, and the appeal was backed by certain main companies of high interest, the appeal was successful and the case was lost. The story has never been aired. But on a documentary I watched entitled the Corporation I learned about all this. Which got me thinking maybe my staph could have come from drinking milk! I drink alot of milk.

 

If you get a chance to watch the documentary called the corporation do it. It is well worth it, its amazing to know that corporations are considered people in a court of law and are granted the same if not more rights than me or you would be, but it explains how corporations if they are people are purely psycopath and have no moral distinction between right and wrong. Its a great film, and you will see this company Monsanto is probably the evilest corporation on the planet.

 

Michael Moore says in the film, ya know its funny, due to corporate greed I am paid to sit here and help destroy the same people who are paying me to make this film. It's like they are so greedy that if they make money they will pay you to tie the noose around there neck and hang them. Its so true! Don't worry though if your not a Michael Moore fan, he is only in about 1 minute of the movie.

 

Anyways take care guys, look forward to hearing anymore info!

[coquina]

But what the procuct did was it was injected into a cow and caused the cow to produce more milk, well the first huge concern came when the cows started getting massive bladder infections after being injected. I seen some footage it looked pretty horrible, some of the cows utters were the size of basketballs and they could not walk.

 

I read the reports on the FDA website - the cows had mastitis, which is an infection of the milk producing glands, not the bladder. (You probably meant to write that but just thought I'd clear it up.)

 

I've spent the better part of the afternoon reading about Posilac and bovine somatotropin, including several studies by veterinary schools at various colleges. All of them concluded that milk produced from cows who were injected with Posilac is safe.

 

Could the etiology of the mother of all deadly staph infections be traced to a new genetically engineered version of staph, a superbug inadvertently produced by Monsanto and then introduced into the food supply?

 

Monsanto used E. coli, not a staphyloccus bacteria for the source of the recombitant DNA, so, as Skye said, I don't think there is a connection there.

 

However - in general, I don't know whether it is still routine or not, but herd animals and chickens used to be fed prophylactic antibiotics to keep them from getting an infectious disease. This practice creates antibiotic resistant bacteria.

 

Here is where I begin to wonder. Not only myself but many people I spent time with this last summer have all contracted staph infection. My wife, my wifes best friend, one of my friends, my wifes bestfriends newborn baby, my wifes bestfriends mother and sister, my wifes bestfriends husband, and a friend who visted us from california.

 

I see you live in Idaho - I was trying to think of a source that might have infected everyone with a resistant form of the bacteria. I'm thinking it's more likely to be water-borne that milk borne. Do you get your water from a well? Even if it you have city water, I suppose there's a chance the pipes could be contaminated. Did you all go swimming in the same pool or use a hot tub. If it's inadequately chlorinated, that is another possible source.

 

Some friends of mine had a hot tub party several years ago, they thought it had enough bromine in it - it didn't. Everyone who got in came down with boils all over them - it must have been staph.

 

If there is a source of contamination in your home or immediate surroundings, maybe you are continually re-exposing yourself to it. Is there some place you all went together during the summer that only you access now?

 

You didn't say where your infection is located - but one of the things they tried with mother was to pack the wound with sand sized beads which contained a slow release antibiotic - the beads themself dissolve after the antibiotic has been used up. Has anyone suggested that to you?

 

In any case - I hope you get over it soon. I know what a beast it is.

[TimeTraveler]

I read the reports on the FDA website - the cows had mastitis' date=' which is an infection of the milk producing glands, not the bladder. (You probably meant to write that but just thought I'd clear it up.)

 

I've spent the better part of the afternoon reading about Posilac and bovine somatotropin, including several studies by veterinary schools at various colleges. All of them concluded that milk produced from cows who were injected with Posilac is safe.

 

 

 

Monsanto used E. coli, not a staphyloccus bacteria for the source of the recombitant DNA, so, as Skye said, I don't think there is a connection there.

 

However - in general, I don't know whether it is still routine or not, but herd animals and chickens used to be fed prophylactic antibiotics to keep them from getting an infectious disease. This practice creates antibiotic resistant bacteria.

 

 

 

I see you live in Idaho - I was trying to think of a source that might have infected everyone with a resistant form of the bacteria. I'm thinking it's more likely to be water-borne that milk borne. Do you get your water from a well? Even if it you have city water, I suppose there's a chance the pipes could be contaminated. Did you all go swimming in the same pool or use a hot tub. If it's inadequately chlorinated, that is another possible source.

 

Some friends of mine had a hot tub party several years ago, they thought it had enough bromine in it - it didn't. Everyone who got in came down with boils all over them - it must have been staph.

 

If there is a source of contamination in your home or immediate surroundings, maybe you are continually re-exposing yourself to it. Is there some place you all went together during the summer that only you access now?

 

You didn't say where your infection is located - but one of the things they tried with mother was to pack the wound with sand sized beads which contained a slow release antibiotic - the beads themself dissolve after the antibiotic has been used up. Has anyone suggested that to you?

 

In any case - I hope you get over it soon. I know what a beast it is.[/quote']

 

Alot of us spent time together tubing down the river and camping together. However my wifes best friends mother did not, and she contracted it shortly after me, also the newborn baby got it 7 days after being born, and everyone who was in contact with her had it cleared up long before she was born.

 

I am suprised you did not find anything attributing the product to staph, that was a huge problem the reporters who were suppressed found out. I will see if I can provide some links.

 

Here's a news story that's gone by virtually unreported. The FDA has pulled Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), sold under the name Posilac, off the market. It was contaminated with staph bacteria. Farmers who use the stuff are scrambling to find a supply. Here's a rather ranty report from an activist who's fought to get Posilac off the market. He quotes from an FDA report obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. ["Specifically, the corrective actions implemented after the investigation of nine sterility failures reported since 2001 (3 for 2001, 3 for 2002, and 3 for 2003) for Posilac injection or for the lyophilized active ingredient (Sometribove zinc) have not been effective in preventing reoccurrence. In five instances (2 for 2001, 1 for 2002, and 2 for 2003) the organism was identified as Propionibacterium acnes; Staphylococcus species have been identified in three instances and in one instance (in 2002) Bacillus pumilus was found. Propionibacterium was found in environmental samples of the manufacturing areas. Batches manufactured around the same period of time and under the same conditions of the affected lots have been released to the market."]

 

Here is a link to that story: http://www.toad.net/~bsimon/2004/week20.html

[TimeTraveler]

Here are the two reporters who discovered this cover-up (The cover-up alleges that the Monsanto company falsified documents to the FDA stating they knew this product could have led to bacterial infections, such as staph)

 

About the reporters:

http://www.foxbghsuit.com/bgh3.htm

 

And another one about the case:

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Akre-Wilson-Fox-TV2apr98.htm

 

Though legal since approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1993, the artificial hormone commonly known as BGH has been linked to cancer and is banned throughout Europe and unapproved in several other countries because of human health concerns.

 

The never-broadcast report also reveals how Florida supermarkets quietly reneged on promises not to sell milk from treated cows until the hormone gained widespread acceptance by consumers. All major supermarkets now admit BGH has found its way into virtually all the state’s milk supply.

 

"We are parents ourselves," Akre said. "It is not right for the station to withhold this important health information and solely as a matter of conscience we will not aid and abet their effort to cover this up any longer," she said. "Every parent and every consumer have the right to know what they’re pouring on their children’s morning cereal."

 

Here is a link to a story from a guy who spent ten years trying to get this product off the market: http://www.wnho.net/death_of_bovine.htm

 

It has been well reported that a new emerging species of bacteria has developed, immune to antibiotic treatment. Staphylococcus aureus plagues many American hospitals in this new outbreak. Could the etiology of the mother of all deadly staph infections be traced to a new genetically engineered version of staph, a superbug inadvertently produced by Monsanto and then introduced into the food supply? In 1989, such staphyloccus infections were unknown to hospitals. By 2002, nearly two-thirds of all hospital infections could be attributed to antibiotic-resistant staphlococcus infections.

 

As for the cows, yeah I don't know much about cows, bladder, mastitis. /shrug At any rate the cows looked like they were in serious pain.

[Mokele]

Not to be overly cynical, but doesn't Monsanto have a history of this sort of stuff?

 

A quick look on Wikipedia shows they've been sued over Agent Orange (their product) and poisoning an Alabama town with PCBs, and have sued farmers of inadvertent gene flow from Monsanto GE crops into their fields. They've also sued farmers in Maine for advertising that they don't used Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone, because it hurt their business.

 

Don't they sound nice?

 

Mokele

[TimeTraveler]

Not to be overly cynical' date=' but doesn't Monsanto have a history of this sort of stuff?

 

A quick look on Wikipedia shows they've been sued over Agent Orange (their product) and poisoning an Alabama town with PCBs, and have sued farmers of inadvertent gene flow from Monsanto GE crops into their fields. They've also sued farmers in Maine for advertising that they don't used Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone, because it hurt their business.

 

Don't they sound nice?

 

Mokele[/quote']

 

Yeah they have been involved in alot of disputes. They have been convicted of bribery. And from my understanding the FDA has been after them on numerous accounts about this issue and many others. The problem is the information is mostly not available about them. Reporters stay away from them, these guys are huge and contribute alot of advertising revenue to all the major media.

[coquina]

Yeah they have been involved in alot of disputes. They have been convicted of bribery. And from my understanding the FDA has been after them on numerous accounts about this issue and many others. The problem is the information is mostly not available about them. Reporters stay away from them, these guys are huge and contribute alot of advertising revenue to all the major media.

 

Yes - Monsanto certainly sounds like they are more interested in their bottom line. Big corporations certainly are capable of the type of actions attributed to Monsanto. Hundreds of shipyard workers here contracted mesothelioma because Johns Mansville knew asbestos was carcinogenic and didn't let on.

 

Philip Morris (they changed their name to Altria BTW) owns Kraft Foods. The way they lied about the harmful effects of tobacco, do you ever wonder what might be in your cheese or ice cream?

[TimeTraveler]

Philip Morris (they changed their name to Altria BTW) owns Kraft Foods. The way they lied about the harmful effects of tobacco, do you ever wonder what might be in your cheese or ice cream?

 

Yeah and what the heck is that stuff they call cheese in Kraft Macoroni and cheese? I've always wondered what kind of chemical process it takes to make that stuff lol.

[Skye]

People who drink that milk or eat/drink anything made from that milk would be recieving those minute traces of antibiotics which could have lowered peoples natural immune system to fight certain things (among them Staph).

 

Now staph is something that many many people have' date=' it lives on peoples skin, but it is usually not able to cause infection because the body produces enough natural antibiotics to keep it at bay, however staph has the ability to mutate and resist antibiotics especially when it is exposed to them in small quantities.

 

So from my understanding, persons that drink these milk products become more at risk because the antibiotics in the milk allow the bacteria to be exposed to small traces of the antibiotics and they mutate, possibly to the point of them resisting your bodies own natural antibiotics and also most known antibiotics that could be used to fight staff.[/quote']

Our immune system is not based on antibiotics, it's largely cellular. Here's a wikipedia article on the immune system:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system

 

Of course, the main way we prevent staph infections is by having skin which they can't penetrate.

 

But anyway, antibiotic resistance shouldn't affect your bodies ability to fight a disease, only chemotherapeutic means of treating it.

[Nevermore]

A ban of rBST will take effect on April 1st 2005, but Monsanto is already fighting to lift it.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1109639017321630.xml&storylist=orlocal

[rakuenso]

However, Monsanto stock prices have nearly tripled/quadrapled in the PAST YEAR...

[jdurg]

Hmm. Sorry to hear about all these problems. I'm a Type I diabetic and one thing I've always found strange is how they say diabetics have a weakend immune system. I have really yet to experience that. In my life, I am RARELY sick. People can cough and sneeze on me and I never seem to pick up whatever bug is going around. I never caught Chicken Pox growing up and was recently found to be naturally immune to it. In fact, the whole reason I have diabetes is believe to be an overactive immune system. (The research hasn't advanced too far yet, but my doctor is looking into my medical history. As a young kid, before I got diabetes, I went through a large number of ear infections. Shortly after one of the infections went away, I came down with diabetes. It is believed that I have a genetic 'flaw' which caused my immune system to think that my Islet cells were a virus and thus killed them. So I guess my immune system kills pretty much anything it can find). I also drink milk like crazy. Have been doing so for my entire life. Unfortuneately I haven't really kept track of the brand names I've ingested. I just know that I haven't gotten ill yet when in reality, I should be one of the first people to get severely sick. (I don't exactly live a healthy lifestyle, though I did give up cigarette smoking a few months ago).

[TimeTraveler]

Thank you for the links Nevermore and Skye.

 

jdurg, thank you for your concern. Tomorrow morning I go under the needle I have to get a series of tests to determine if I may possibly have Diabetes among other things. The doctor seems baffled that my immune system is so unable to fight the infection.

 

Also I have opened some dialog with some lawyers who are helping me look into the possibility of my infection being in anyway related to this product, if I find out anything I will let everyone know.

[Nevermore]

Okay. Get well soon, and good luck with the law suit.

[TimeTraveler]

Okay. Get well soon, and good luck with the law suit.

 

Thanks! No law suit yet, just finding out information still, but if anyone comes across anything please post it! Mainly looking for information to what farms have been using this product and where the shipments from those dairy farms goes to.