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It seems as though these drugs were rushed out far too quickly and for no real reason. Perhaps someone can come up with a reason?

The reason is probably money. I've read there's a 'suspicion' over any drug containing functional fluoride groups, which include the fluoroquinolones, and SSRIs like Prozac (fluoxetine) although that might be a bridge too far.

I took norfloxacin very very briefly once and had a near miss with Achilles tendons tears, apparently Cipro is less likely to cause that -- I've seen a study somewhere which ranked several of the fluoros for degree of tendonitis harm.

I've also seen individual accounts and sites on the web of people taking just 1 dose of Cipro and having awful auto-immune problems for years, being crippled, etc.

In the US it was still being commonly recommended to MDs as a frontline drug for simple UTIs, etc, and prescribed accordingly. Smart GPs/MDs will know better by now, of course. It's now euphemistically being recommended only when other abx options don't work -- when in fact you'd probably be better off avoiding it altogether, as it's a game of Russian Roulette.

Sean, you are right to my mind: MONEY!