New research from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, suggests that doctors may be overprescribing antibiotics, both in urgent care and retail clinic settings.
Dr. Katherine Fleming-Dutra and her research team showed that for respiratory or airway tract related illnesses, antibiotic medications were inappropriately prescribed in 45.7% of urgent care visits, 24.6% of emergency room visits, 17.0% of medical office visits and 14.4% of retail clinic visits.
They fight what are often called “germs:” bacteria. But people can become infected with viruses, fungi, or parasites as well, and antibiotics don’t work against those. A superbug is a bacteria that has high levels of resistance to many different antibiotics.
One example: The CDC reports 246,000 cases of drug-resistant gonorrhea infections per year.
No comments:
Post a Comment