Physical Wellness

CDC Warns About Excessive Antibiotics Prescribed In U.S.

By Shilpa Chakravorty | Update Date: Sep 20, 2016 11:32 AM EDT

Amidst the growing concern about the drug - resistant bacteria, overprescribing of antibiotics is still a concern accord to U.S. federal report. In fact, it has not dropped between 2006 and 2012, which is a cause of concern for U.S. health experts.

Over the 6 years from 2006 to 2012, 55 percent of the patients has received at least one dose of antibiotic during their hospital stay, irrespective of the need, mentioned researchers from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Antibiotic use remains common, and use of the most powerful antibiotics is rising," said lead researcher James Baggs, a CDC epidemiologist, reported UPI.

Moreover, Baggs also noted that inappropriate use of antibiotics increases the risk of antibiotic resistance, including other side effects. The report was published on September 19 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study included information from a database from 300 hospitals and 34 million patients. Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, associate professor at Harvard Medical School mentioned that despite knowing the side effects patients are prescribed the drugs they don't need.

In addition, Mehrotra mentioned that one primary reason for the excessive prescription is that it is easy. Additionally, doctors think that it might not help, but it would not hurt the patients even, which causes them to prescribe.

Notably, antibiotics and antibiotic resistant diseases are a global problem presently, and a topic which will be discussed this week at the United Nations General Assembly.

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.

Presently doctors have seen many multi-drug resistant infections, which cannot be cured with medication. This has led to a call for global action according to Laxminarayan.

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