This section was compiled by Frank M. Painter, D.C. Send all comments or additions to:Frankp@chiro.org
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"Antibiotic resistance comes mainly because of inappropriate or improper use of antibiotics by physicians. Some 150 million prescriptions are written annually in this country. And 60 percent of them — that translates to 90 million prescriptions — are for antibiotics. Of those, 50 million are absolutely unnecessary or inappropriate."
— Dr. Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and diagnostic immunology at New York University Medical Center
The Iatrogenic Injury Page
A collection of articles discussing the dangerous, and often fatal side effects of medical care.
Antibiotic Use: Is Appropriateness Expensive?
J Hosp Infect 2009 (Feb); 71 (2): 108–111
Antibiotics are prone to misuse. In this study, 37% of 600 antibiotic prescriptions in three hospitals were considered unnecessary. When antibiotic therapy was indicated, 45% were considered to be inadequate. In multivariate analyses, the indicated treatments were found to be more expensive than the unjustified ones, probably because the latter were more often oral regimens. However, for indicated treatments, the cost of adequate and inadequate treatments did not differ significantly.
Antibiotic Use In Infants Linked To Asthma
The Science Advisory Board ~ June 13, 2007
New research indicates that children who receive antibiotics before their first birthday are significantly more likely to develop asthma by age 7. The study, published in the June issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), reports that children receiving antibiotics in the first year of life were at greater risk for developing asthma by age 7 than those not receiving antibiotics. The risk for asthma doubled in children receiving antibiotics for nonrespiratory infections, as well as in children who received multiple antibiotic courses and who did not live with a dog during the first year.
Early Life Infections Improve the Function of the Immune System
American Journal of Clinical Chiropractic 2006 (Apr); 16 (2): 22–25
This collection of medical citations presented by Dan Murphy, DC demonstrates that early exposure to antibiotic use and Pertussis vaccination contribute to the development of atopic disorders such as asthma, and hay fever, and may also be associated with the onset of pediatric lymphoblastic leukemia. Our thanks to Harrison Chiropractic Biophysics Seminars and the American Journal of Clinical Chiropractic for releasing this article exclusively at Chiro.Org!
Misuse of Antibiotics for Sore Throat
Journal of the American Medical Association 2001 (Sep 12); 286 (10): 1181–1186
Sore throat is the second-most common symptomatic reason for seeking medical care, with cough being the most common. Approximately 76% of adults who visit a primary care physician because of a sore throat are given an antibiotic, even though viruses that are not affected by antibiotics are the primary cause for upper-respiratory-tract infections . The only common cause of a sore throat that can be managed with antibiotics is the bacterial group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS), which is present in throat cultures in only 5-17% of adults.
The Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance
Scientific American March 1998
Last year an event doctors had been fearing finally occurred. In three geographically separate patients, an often deadly bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, responded poorly to a once reliable antidote--the antibiotic vancomycin. Fortunately, in those patients, the staph microbe remained susceptible to other drugs and was eradicated. But the appearance of S. aureus not readily cleared by vancomycin foreshadows trouble.
The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections
FDA Consumer Magazine ~ September 1995
Antibiotic resistance spreads fast. Between 1979 and 1987, for example, only 0.02 percent of pneumococcus strains infecting a large number of patients surveyed by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were penicillin-resistant. CDC's survey included 13 hospitals in 12 states. Today, 6.6 percent of pneumococcus strains are resistant, according to a report in the June 15, 1994, Journal of the American Medical Association by Robert F. Breiman, M.D., and colleagues at CDC. The agency also reports that in 1992, 13,300 hospital patients died of bacterial infections that were resistant to antibiotic treatment.
Over-utilization of Pharmaceuticals
In the area of antibiotics alone, the most prominent problem has been the over-utilization of drugs. The Center for Disease Control, for instance, estimates that 1/3 of the antibiotics taken on an outpatient basis in the United States are unnecessary. Increasing use of antibiotics is linked to the increase of their resistance by bacteria; in the United States, 14,000 people die each year from drug-resistant infections picked up in hospitals. [1]
In terms of healthcare costs, the rising use of pharmaceuticals has profound consequences. From 1993 to 1998, for instance, annual drug expenditures in the U.S. nearly doubled from $50.6 billion to $93.4 billion, most of the expenses being borne by third-party payors. [2] Total spending on prescription drugs doubled from 1995 to 2000 and tripled from 1990 to 2000, constituting one of the main factors driving up health care expenditures overall. [3]
WHO Global Strategy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance
A major cause of bacterial resisitance to antibiotics is the inappropriate prescription of antibiotics by medical doctors for illnesses which do not respond to them. Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria...they cannot harm viral infections.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Background on Antibiotic Resistance
The CDC has been asking medical doctors for years to stop throwing antibiotics at every illness that walks in their door. It is their failure to comply that has contributed to the dramatic increase in new resistant strains of bacteria.
The ICPA Antibiotic Abuse Page
There's a variety of citations about antibiotic abuse at the leading chiropractic pediatric website.
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