Little improvement seen in antibiotic abuse
For decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others have led a significant effort to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. Despite this work, new research from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) finds only incremental improvement in the number of antibiotic prescriptions written for adults with acute bronchitis and sore throat. These findings were presented today at IDWeek and the sore throat data was published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. “We know that antibiotic prescribing, particularly to patients who are not likely to benefit from it, increases the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a growing concern both here in the United States and around the world,” said Jeffrey A. Linder, a physician and researcher in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at BWH, the senior author of the paper. “Our research shows that while only 10 percent of adults with sore throat have strep, the only common cause of sore throat...