Despite evidence that prolific use of antibiotics could actually be making us get sicker, hospitals are still prescribing them at high rates.
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From 2006 up to 2012, 300 to 383 hospitals in the US for each year contributed antibiotic data to Truven Health MarketScan Hospital Drug Database (HDD) and throughout those years, 55.1% of hospitalized patients obtained at least one dose of antibiotics during hospital visit, the study reported.
“This trend is worrisome in light of the rising challenge of antibiotic resistance”, CDC scientists wrote in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, which recently published the findings. “Doctors are human, they’re anxious, they’re behind, they’re concerned about what the patient wants”.
Dr. Cohen specializes in clinical infectious diseases and said there are several ways to curb the issue, such as physicians prescribing only when they have to, patients asking about alternatives to antibiotics and everyone using common hygiene practices to prevent the spread of illness. Though overall antibiotic use stayed the same during the six-year study, the team found that use of third-and-fourth generation cephalosporins, macrolides, glycopeptides, carbapenems, and tetracyclines rose by a large margin.
Moreover, Baggs also noted that inappropriate use of antibiotics increases the risk of antibiotic resistance, including other side effects.
“This is about the fact that doctors are human – doctors think patients want antibiotics”, Mehrotra said.
“We need new antibiotics, but in all likelihood we’re not going to invent our way out of this”, Frieden said.
One reason for overprescribing is that it’s easy to do and many doctors figure it might not help, but it won’t hurt, Mehrotra suggested. Companies that raise livestock routinely prescribe antibiotics to try to stave off costly infections in herds and flocks.
Along with evidence showing antibiotic drugs are having an adverse impact on health, the Food and Drug Administration recently announced that consumers can stop using antibacterial soap in their homes.
According to Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of nonprofit Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, because of the random use of antibiotics, it is not as effective to treat ailments as it was in the past. All styles of microbes, including micro organism, viruses and fungi were shrugging off attacks from the drug treatments created to prevent them. professionals estimate that seven-hundred, 000 humans die around the world every year from drug-resistant germs, and that they anticipate the number to develop sharply. Experts estimate that 700,000 people die around the world each year from drug-resistant germs, and they expect the number to grow sharply.
“In developed nations, too many people are being prescribed antibiotics unnecessarily, while in many developing countries too few have access to these lifesaving drugs”, he said.
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For more on antibiotic drug resistance, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
