Antibiotic Overuse

Doctors and other health-care professionals are sounding an alarm about the growing resistance of harmful  bacteria to our current arsenal of antibiotics. Medical facilities across the country find themselves almost helpless against many microscopic bugs that used to be easily killed by a quick course of the drugs.

There are many reasons why such "superbugs" seem to be emerging, but the one that's most easily remedied is the way doctors prescribe antibiotics. The American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine recently devised new guidelines to help physicians dispense these drugs appropriately.  The premise of the new guidelines is that antibiotics aren't needed for most respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis,  pharyngitis and the common cold.

These infections are caused by viruses and are not affected by antibiotics, which kill only bacteria. The vast majority of viral infections are self-limiting, meaning that if nothing is done they'll  die off on their own. In fact, using an antibiotic to treat a virus can often do more harm than good. In some cases, it can stimulate the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can no longer be killed by medications.

The Centers for Disease Control has already noted an increase of epidemic proportions in resistant strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the germ that causes bacterial pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis.  So why do we continue to see the misuse of antibiotics if it's clear it jeopardizes our health?

While experts suggest many reasons, most agree that patient pressure is one of the biggest. Sick patients often insist on receiving a course of antibiotics, either because they've had it before or because it has helped a friend with similar symptoms. Neither is a good reason for antibiotics, but in the hustle and bustle of a busy medical practice, it's sometimes easier for doctors to prescribe medications than explain to patients that antibiotics are unlikely to help, or that their infection will likely end without treatment.

Physicians, however, share a large part of the blame, because they are responsible for prescribing the antibiotics. Doctors feel compelled to do something for patients, so even if an antibiotic might not be the recommended treatment, it gets prescribed anyway. If you have a couple of pills left over, throw them out rather than save them for your next bout of sniffles. Don't give them to your neighbor to help relieve her itchy throat. Remember that when they need that antibiotic to fight a real infection, it might not,do them any good if the bacteria has become immune.