Health News
- 'superbug' Considered The Worst One Yet Is Still Not Widespread In Kentucky Hospitals, But Officials Predict It Is Coming
A new deadly superbug that is almost totally resistant to antibiotics and kills about half who get bloodstream infections has found its way to community hospitals in the Southeastern United States, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. "We...
- Kentucky Hospitals Disagree On How To Battle Mrsa, An Antibiotic-resistant And Highly Contagious Bacteria That Plagues Them
Hospitals agree that precautions must be taken to fight the potentially deadly super bug MRSA, but they differ in their approaches, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. Swab kits are used to screen for MRSA. (Photo: Matt Stone, C-J)Ungar focuses...
- Nightmare, Drug-resistant Superbugs, Including One That Kills Half The People Who Get It, Are A Big Threat
"Nightmare bacteria" leading to deadly infections that are difficult and sometimes impossible to treat are on the rise in American hospitals, and threaten to spread to otherwise healthy people outside of medical facilities, according to a federal Centers...
- Kentucky Is No. 1 State In Overuse Of Antibiotics, A Problem That Poses Wide Dangers To The Drugs' Effectiveness
In 2010 the average number of dispensed outpatient antibiotic prescriptions was 801 per 1,000 Americans. In Kentucky it was 1,197. The darker the state, the higher the rate. (CDC map)Americans, especially Kentuckians, are taking too many...
- Use Of Pacifiers Could Lead To Very Sick Babies, Study Finds
Oklahoma State University researchers report that they have found a wide range of disease-causing bacteria, fungus and mold on pacifiers that young children had been using. In research presented at the American Society for Clinical Pathology, scientists...
Health News
Prescribing antibiotics for viral infections must stop; overuse of antibiotics causes antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs'
Bronchitis is a viral infection, and antibiotics are not effective for treating viral infections.
Doctors know this, yet they continue to prescribe antibiotics to patients with bronchitis and other viral infections anyway, Ezra Klein reports on his new website, Vox.
Research shows that doctors prescribe antibiotics for acute bronchitis about 71 percent of the time even though they know that overuse of antibiotics is the leading cause of "superbugs," or organisms that are resistant to some if not all antibiotics, Klein reports. They do this because it makes patients feel better to walk out of the doctor's office with a treatment.
Klein goes on to paint a picture of a post-antibiotic future that could result from doctors prescribing antibiotics for viral infections. Klein reports that patients must stop thinking that good physician care is the result of being treated with an antibiotic, especially in the treatment of bronchitis.
Kentucky and its Southern neighbors overuse more than their share of antibiotics. The southeastern states are the highest users of antibiotics, with twice as many antibiotic prescriptions as states in the Pacific region, according to a study by the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC recommends that every hospital in this country have an antibiotic stewardship program and track their resistance and prescribing patterns. Half of all hospital patients get antibiotics and one-third of the antibiotics prescribed are inappropriate or are unnecessary, CDC Director Tom Frieden told Klein.
Frieden said the world is at risk of losing antibiotics to resistance created by over-prescribing, but a "modest investment" can thwart the most dangerous drug-resistant organisms. Working toward creating new antibiotics and then not falling into the same patterns of abuse must also be part of the solution, Frieden said. (Read more)
Doctors know this, yet they continue to prescribe antibiotics to patients with bronchitis and other viral infections anyway, Ezra Klein reports on his new website, Vox.Research shows that doctors prescribe antibiotics for acute bronchitis about 71 percent of the time even though they know that overuse of antibiotics is the leading cause of "superbugs," or organisms that are resistant to some if not all antibiotics, Klein reports. They do this because it makes patients feel better to walk out of the doctor's office with a treatment.
Klein goes on to paint a picture of a post-antibiotic future that could result from doctors prescribing antibiotics for viral infections. Klein reports that patients must stop thinking that good physician care is the result of being treated with an antibiotic, especially in the treatment of bronchitis.
Kentucky and its Southern neighbors overuse more than their share of antibiotics. The southeastern states are the highest users of antibiotics, with twice as many antibiotic prescriptions as states in the Pacific region, according to a study by the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC recommends that every hospital in this country have an antibiotic stewardship program and track their resistance and prescribing patterns. Half of all hospital patients get antibiotics and one-third of the antibiotics prescribed are inappropriate or are unnecessary, CDC Director Tom Frieden told Klein.
Frieden said the world is at risk of losing antibiotics to resistance created by over-prescribing, but a "modest investment" can thwart the most dangerous drug-resistant organisms. Working toward creating new antibiotics and then not falling into the same patterns of abuse must also be part of the solution, Frieden said. (Read more)
- 'superbug' Considered The Worst One Yet Is Still Not Widespread In Kentucky Hospitals, But Officials Predict It Is Coming
A new deadly superbug that is almost totally resistant to antibiotics and kills about half who get bloodstream infections has found its way to community hospitals in the Southeastern United States, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. "We...
- Kentucky Hospitals Disagree On How To Battle Mrsa, An Antibiotic-resistant And Highly Contagious Bacteria That Plagues Them
Hospitals agree that precautions must be taken to fight the potentially deadly super bug MRSA, but they differ in their approaches, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. Swab kits are used to screen for MRSA. (Photo: Matt Stone, C-J)Ungar focuses...
- Nightmare, Drug-resistant Superbugs, Including One That Kills Half The People Who Get It, Are A Big Threat
"Nightmare bacteria" leading to deadly infections that are difficult and sometimes impossible to treat are on the rise in American hospitals, and threaten to spread to otherwise healthy people outside of medical facilities, according to a federal Centers...
- Kentucky Is No. 1 State In Overuse Of Antibiotics, A Problem That Poses Wide Dangers To The Drugs' Effectiveness
In 2010 the average number of dispensed outpatient antibiotic prescriptions was 801 per 1,000 Americans. In Kentucky it was 1,197. The darker the state, the higher the rate. (CDC map)Americans, especially Kentuckians, are taking too many...
- Use Of Pacifiers Could Lead To Very Sick Babies, Study Finds
Oklahoma State University researchers report that they have found a wide range of disease-causing bacteria, fungus and mold on pacifiers that young children had been using. In research presented at the American Society for Clinical Pathology, scientists...