Posted on 09/22/2010 5:26:39 PM PDT by decimon
Doctors frequently misuse antibiotics when treating patients hospitalized with respiratory tract infections (RTIs), according to a study to be published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
The study, which tracked patients in two Pennsylvania hospitals, found that doctors often use antibiotics to treat patients whose infections are known to be caused by viruses. The findings are alarming because antibiotics are not effective against viruses, and antibiotic overuse has been linked to the development of resistant bacterial strains.
"[T]hese data demonstrate at least one area where antibiotics are commonly used in hospitalized patients without clear reason," write the study's authors, Kevin T. Shiley, Ebbing Lautenbach and Ingi Lee, all from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "Recognition of this may be helpful in developing interventions to limit inappropriate antibiotic use in the future."
In recent years, new diagnostic tests have been developed to distinguish infections caused by viruses from those caused by bacteria. In theory, more definitive diagnoses should reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics in patients with viral infections. But that does not appear to be happening, according to Shiley and his colleagues.
The researchers looked at data on RTI patients admitted to two hospitals over a two-year period. Of 196 patients who were diagnosed with viral infections, 125 remained on antibiotics after their diagnoses. It would be understandable to keep a patient on antibiotics if an abnormal chest x-ray suggests a concurrent bacterial infection, the researchers said. However, only 37% of these patients had abnormal chest x-rays. "It is less clear why the remaining 63% of patients with normal chest imaging were prescribed antibiotics," Shiley and his colleagues write.
NO CLINICAL BENEFIT
Patients in the study who remained on antibiotics did not benefit from the treatment, the researchers found. In fact, antibiotics may have led to harm in some cases. For example, a significant number of antibiotic patients developed Clostridium difficile diarrhea, a condition linked with antibiotic use.
On average, the antibiotic group had longer hospital stays and higher mortality rates than the non-antibiotic group. While those poorer outcomes cannot be attributed directly to antibiotic treatment, they do suggest that there was no clinical benefit, the researchers say.
"This study highlights the crucial role of antimicrobial stewardship in improving patient care," said Neil O. Fishman, M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. "Appropriate use of antibiotics is not only essential to limiting emergence of resistance, but also may help improve clinical outcomes."
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Kevin T. Shiley, Ebbing Lautenbach, and Ingi Lee, "The Use of Antimicrobial Agents after the Diagnosis of Viral Respiratory Tract Infections in Hospitalized Adults: Antibiotics or Anxiolytics?" Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 31:11 (November 2010). The study will publish online next week.
Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. It is published by a partnership between The Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America and The University of Chicago Press.
Excellent suggestions.
Well, it looks like my daughter has her first cold of the season. She started coughing last night. We’ll see if it turns into anything, or if she can fight it off. I’ll probably know in about a week.
I was hoping she would go another month before getting sick.
She’s 13. She never had asthma very bad until last year. Her twin sister always had it bad. Last year, they switched places.
We’ll see what happens this year.
Those ear cleaning drops kits costs beaucoups bucks, and the active ingredient is often pretty close to hydrogen peroxide. :’)
I had asthma pretty bad until I was 18 years old when I had my worst and last asthma attack, the only one that ever required a visit to the ER. It is very scary you think you are not going to be able to take another breath. My allergies didn’t go away at 18, they just changed from asthma to other problems. Best of luck with your girls. Just remember they can be allergic to anything, it is difficult to sort it out some times.
A bottle of H2O2 costs me 50-60 cents and lasts nearly a year. It is a “miracle” drug to me. Not getting sick for years is worth way more than what I pay a bottle.
I mean I am down to tiny fractions of a cent per day for good health! You cannot imagine how much that pleases a miser like myself. ;-]
The Squeeze bottle available with the saline packets premeasured etc. at Walgreens are better, imho, than the netti. Much more functional and comfortable for me to use. It’s not fun but it’s workable. And with lifelong sinus infection challenges, it’s been a welcome and effective solution.
There’s a bunch of stuff from several different MD’s on the net about hydrogen peroxide food grade preventing, even curing all manner of stuff, even cancer.
Y’all are essentially agreeing with those contentions?
Where does one get such a product?
Thx.
IIRC, Asthma is something that Henry Wright
has had great success in facilitating the total and permanent healing thereof.
Excellent, imho:
I can’t pretend to give advice, but the first thing I do when I feel some sort of bug coming on is to take a decent can of chicken soup, crush up several cloves of garlic into it, along with two bay leaves, a bunch of oregano and either a lot of fresh cracked black pepper or hot sauce. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for a good while with the lid on, then eat it all. As I mentioned upthread, quite a few of the typical kitchen spices have antimicrobial properties, you don’t need to limit yourself to just these if your taste in food varies.
Go get a probiotic, some Omega 3 and make a point of eating right. Find a way to let go of the stress you’re carrying around. Simple visualization, whenever and wherever you have the opportunity, lay back, close your eyes, concentrate on your breathing. In and out, fully, slowly. Goal is relaxation. Visualize relaxing every muscle in your body, you’ll have a surprising number of very tense ones.
While you’re doing this, in your mind, see a happy place, a good place where you feel at ease and at peace. Go there in your mind, all the while breathing easily and deeply, with muscles relaxed. This will help a great deal until you are through your seasonal period of overwork and can get some genuine rest.
Prayer is very effective in doing the same thing, if you’re the praying sort. Lift your burden up to God. Ask for His help in humble sincerity.
That’s as close to advice as I have to give.
Fair enough.
Has been a big help and change, for me. Need to stock up a bit more. Have a year’s supply, I think.
I have been washing out my sinuses regularly for the last 4 to 5 years. During that time I have not had to take antibiotics for a sinus infection. I have for other reason but not for that.
The rest of you who have trouble with your sinuses should really look into this.
However, I did find something that helped me from getting sick in the future. I started taking high amounts of Ester C. (2500 per day).
This has really worked for me. I have not been sick in two years.
DITTO.
And I think the D3 vitamin has been a huge boost along with the Curcumin, as well.
Thanks kara. I’m ready to try everything. I’m completely worn down.
Hydrogen Peroxide might kill cancer cells if it could be fed directly to them, might work pretty well too; but the problem is in the delivery system, as it is for any kind of chemotherapy. Food-grade H2O2 is 35% or so, and is used for disinfecting and bleaching stuff. Works great for that, not least because it’s water soluble and can be rinsed away, and breaks down in the sewer system. At that concentration, it would also disinfect the sewer pipes, and clear out most clogs.
Anything higher than 35% is a bit of a fire risk, since H202 is a monopropellant. Those jetpacks demoed at the county fair and wherever use 100% H202, with a catalyst (I forget what metal), and nothing else. I wouldn’t want to have the 35% around either, unless I were going to use it right away, because, well, it could go up, and the result would not be pretty. Well, in a sense it would be pretty, but the damage wouldn’t be. ;’)
I think the proponents advocate 8 drops a day in a glass of water or some such.
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