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helpful for kids In new study |
| The Associated Press reported on a study by a group of Pediatricians who studied 383 children with acute respiratory tract illness, ranging from infants to age 12. The study conducted over a one year period was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Of the three hundred eighty-three children in the study, 293 (77%) did not receive antibiotics. The doctors compared the return office visits for the group that received antibiotics with the group that did not. The results showed that 44% of those treated with antibiotics returned for additional treatment while only 29% of those who did not receive antibiotics had to return. Dr. Michael Pichichero, one of the authors of the study, concluded that while some doctors will prescribe antibiotics for nearly all patients with respiratory infections, "there is no scientific rationale for such antibiotic use." In spite of these numbers, a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed that 86% of pediatricians in Georgia routinely prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis, even though such use is rarely justified. The CDC goes on to say that 42% of pediatricians surveyed prescribe antibiotics for the common cold which is caused by a virus and which antibiotics have no effect on. |
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| In the March 18, 1998 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) was an article entitled Antibiotic Prescribing for Children with Colds, Upper Respiratory Infections, and Bronchitis. The article talks about the prevalent usage of antibiotics in children with problems coming from viruses. As all doctors know, antibiotics are not designed or effective in viral infections such as many upper respiratory infections (URI's), bronchitis or colds. In the study sited in the report in JAMA, 531 pediatric files were reviewed whose diagnosis was either colds, URI, or bronchitis. Of these it was determined that 44% of those with colds got a worthless and possibly harmful antibiotic. Of those with URI's 46% were determined to have gotten antibiotics they didn't also need. And in those diagnoses with bronchitis an astounding 75% received an antibiotic even though antibiotics would be totally ineffective and possibly harmful. According to the article's bottom line: "Antibiotic prescribing for children diagnosed as having colds, URI's and bronchitis, conditions that typically do not benefit from antibiotics, represent a substantial proportion of total antibiotic prescriptions to children in the United States each year." Many medical physicians admit that patients expect and even demand antibiotic usage on their children with these types of problems. Doctors have lost patients from their practice when they have refused to administer antibiotics to a parent who mistakenly believes that form of care is needed. |
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warning about antibiotic overuse |
| The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning June 12, 2000 that the present use of antibiotics is creating a dangerous situation by increasing drug resistant infections. According to the report, which was picked up by the Associated Press and most other news agencies, "drug-resistant infections in rich and developing nations alike are threatening to make once-treatable diseases incurable." Dr. David Heymann, WHO infectious diseases chief , stated in the article, "We are losing windows of opportunity. It is something we have to really address immediately or we are going to start losing our antibiotics." Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped the WHO unveil the report also added, "This is a major problem for us, and it is not going to go away." The problem is that we are using antibiotics so regularly that the bacteria we are fighting are now evolving to be resistant and stronger. At the same time when we continually use antibiotics instead of our own natural resistance we are becoming weaker, as a species, in our ability to fight these bacteria. The World Health Organization also pointed out that how we raise animals is also a large part of the problem. The WHO noted that half the antibiotics used worldwide are used on the farm, mostly to help healthy animals grow bigger. That encourages drug-resistant bacteria that cause food poisoning. According to WHO up to 5,000 Americans may have suffered longer-lasting food poisoning in 1998 from drug-resistant germs in chicken. The effects are already being felt. The US Centers for Disease Control states that as many as 88,000 Americans die each year of infections they catch in the hospital, and many are resistant to at least one antibiotic, complicating treatment attempts. The WHO makes two basic recommendations:
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In two articles featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association and in the New England Journal of Medicine, comes disturbing news of strains of the dangerous Staphylococcus aureus bacteria now resistant to the antibiotics used to kill them. In two cases in the United States strains of this bacteria have been identified that no longer responds to antibiotic treatment. It is reported that the "General overuse of antibiotics has allowed S. aureus to develop mutations rendering it resistant to many of these drugs.
In a related study at the University of Washington, Seattle, more than 4000 females were tested for the prevalence and trends of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The results showed a more than 20% resistance against several antibiotics for E. coli and several other bacteria. When several of the bacteria were tested from 1992 to 1996 it was noted that the rate of resistance to the most commonly used antibiotic doubled over that period of time. Resistance to less commonly used antibiotics did not change as dramatically. This indicates, as was reported in the JAMA article, that bacteria will become resistant more readily to regularly used antibiotics. This trend will continue to limit antibiotic choices for fighting infections. In a growing number of cases, patients with certain infections have been faced with the reality of having no antibiotics effective in the treatment of their infections. Dr. Francis Waldvogel of the University Hospital in Geneva Switzerland noted that with "each new antibiotic that is introduced, several escape mechanisms are soon devised." He concluded we will, "need the strategic powers of a Julius Caesar to conduct a major war against the misuse of antibiotics." |
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