Despite this danger, USA hospitals continue to overuse these drugs.
Advertisement
For the new study, which was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on September 19, CDC epidemiologist James Baggs and colleagues looked at the data of about 300 hospitals and over 34 million patients who were hospitalized during the study period between 2006 and 2012 to investigate adult and pediatric antibiotic use.
A CDC study shows that hospital antibiotic use has remained largely the same over the past decade.
“Use of some antibiotics, especially broad spectrum agents, however, has increased significantly”, the study said.
Over 2 million Americans are infected each year with bacteria that doesn’t respond to existing antibiotics.
“Because inappropriate antibiotic use increases the risk of antibiotic resistance and other side effects, continued monitoring of antibiotic use is critical to future improvements in patient safety”, he said.
“We need new antibiotics, but in all likelihood we’re not going to invent our way out of this”, Frieden said.
Between 2006 and 2012, antibiotic use in hospitals in general did not change, and the use of a class of drugs tied most closely to antibiotic resistance actually increased, according to a new study.
While the question of why doctors are increasingly turning to more powerful antibiotics was not explored in the study, the authors have some theories. “Doctors are human, they’re anxious, they’re behind, they’re concerned about what the patient wants”. But doctors often prescribe them anyway to patients looking for some kind of treatment for their respiratory infections, experts say. Physicians, for instance, could be asked to justify the use of antibiotics on the medical record, which could help them stop and think before they prescribe. In addition, patients can ask their doctor why antibiotics are being prescribed, and if they are really necessary.
Burwell cited the five-year National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, or CARB, which is meant to tackle the issue.
Before the United Nations gathering, Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the nonprofit Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, is scheduled to hold a meeting of health experts to focus attention on the problem. The statement acknowledges the scale of the problem and encourages global locations to provide you with plans and money to cut back on antibiotic use, make higher use of vaccines to prevent infections in the first place, and fund development of recent capsules.
“Far more people die because of lack of access than they do from drug resistance”, Laxminarayan said.
In June, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that would require hospitals that are paid by Medicare to track antibiotic use and to reduce antibiotic-resistant infections.
Advertisement
“We need investment in new diagnostic tools, antibiotics and alternatives to antibiotics”, he said.
