Don’t believe these rumors about respiratory diseases caused by pigs

To give a direct conclusion: the recent viral rumors on the Internet, "Using respiratory medicine for pigs to treat coughs and pneumonia in humans is more effective" and "Pig farm disinfection recipes are more effective for preventing respiratory infections at home." These folk remedies for respiratory diseases linked to "pig" are all rumors. The risk of mixing human and animal medicines across borders is extremely high, and serious cases can be fatal. Don't risk your own life by trying them.

I was having a drink with Lao Zhou from the grassroots veterinary station a while ago. He said that in the past two months, he had met three farmers who had eaten pigs and used respiratory medicine to go to the emergency room. There was an old man who had been coughing for two weeks. He heard from fellow villagers that florfenicol was very effective in curing coughs and asthma in pigs. He went through the leftover medicine from feeding pigs at home and took two tablets to eat. He had diarrhea the same day after eating the medicine. He was sent to the county hospital for a diagnosis of gastrointestinal bleeding and suppression of bone marrow hematopoietic function. He stayed in the hospital for almost ten days before being released. He spent enough money to buy a box of regular respiratory medicine for humans.

Don't tell me, there are many people who think that "veterinary medicines are so powerful that even pigs can eat them, and they will definitely be more effective when used by humans." Some people even use "veterinary medicines were used by people for emergencies when there was a shortage of medical treatment in the past." As evidence, this is half true and half false. Old drugs such as mycin are indeed among the very few drugs that are shared between humans and animals, but the dosage used at that time was strictly based on human body weight. Nowadays, the active ingredient content of oxytetracycline you can buy for veterinary use is 3 to 4 times that of human use. Taking it indiscriminately is equivalent to overdosing. Not to mention that drugs such as tilmicosin and tivalisin, which are currently being developed for respiratory diseases in livestock and poultry, have not undergone human clinical trials at all in the research and development stage, and the metabolic pathways and toxic and side effects are all unknown. Take tilmicosin, for example, it is indeed effective against mycoplasma pneumonia in pigs, but the therapeutic dose and the toxic dose are very close. The tolerance of pigs is 6 times higher than that of humans. Even if a person takes 1/4 tablet, it may induce malignant arrhythmia. If there is a real problem, there is no corresponding rescue plan.

In addition to the rumors about taking medicine, there is another one that is even more outrageous. I was watching short videos a while ago and saw someone recommending that you take fumigation tablets used in pig farms and smoke them at home. It will kill all mycoplasma influenza and it is much easier to use than alcohol 84. I was dumbfounded after watching it. My colleague really believed it last month and bought three boxes and smoked it with the doors and windows closed on the weekend. It turned out that the baby just caught a cold and coughed immediately after the smoke. He couldn't breathe. He went to the hospital to find out that it was acute bronchitis caused by irritating gases. He had to wait for three days to get rid of the problem. The main component of the fumigation disinfectant tablets used in pig farms is trichloroisocyanuric acid. The concentration of chlorine produced by burning is more than ten times higher than that of household 84. When the pig farm is empty, the windows must be opened for ventilation. If you close the door and smoke in a house where people live, it is not called disinfection, it is called torture of your upper respiratory tract.

Some people also criticized it, saying that my relative took half a piece of cough medicine used for pigs and got better quickly if nothing happened. This thing is like running a red light. Just running once and not having an accident means you will always be safe. The probability that the problem will fall on you is 100%. Nowadays, the medications used by regular hospitals for mycoplasma, influenza, and common bacterial respiratory infections are very mature. Even oral medications that cost tens of dollars have been verified to be safe by countless human clinical trials. There is no need to gamble on the illusory benefits of "quick results" with your liver, kidney, and heart functions.

In fact, in the final analysis, the reason for these rumors to spread is that everyone is frightened by the recurring respiratory diseases recently, and always wants to find a quick-acting, low-cost folk remedy. However, folk remedies are inherently biased, not to mention that they are tailor-made for pigs. Can they be reliable when used on humans? If you really have a cough that lasts for more than a week and the fever doesn't go down, just go to the hospital and take a X-ray and check your blood. Isn't taking the right medicines safer than veterinary medicines? Don't listen to the nonsense of those bloggers on the Internet who don't even have a professional license. If something goes wrong, it's too late to cry.