According to a joint report from the CDC and the Pew Charitable Trusts, as many as one third of antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate.
When Are Antibiotic Prescriptions Inappropriate?
Doctors continue to prescribe antibiotics for viral infections such as colds or flu-like illness. Antibiotics can do nothing to speed recovery from viruses.
Sinusitis is another problem. Doctors prescribe antibiotics for sinusitis very frequently, even though many cases of sinusitis are caused by fungal infections that don’t respond to these drugs. Apparently more than two-thirds of sinus infections recover without prescription medicine of any sort. That seems to be the case for children as well as adults.
What Is the Rate of Inappropriate Prescribing?
Out of 500 antibiotic prescriptions written per 1000 people in the US, about 353 were appropriate. That means there is a lot of room for improvement.
Inappropriate use of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic resistance that makes treating dangerous infections far more difficult. The emergence of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staph aureus) is just the tip of the iceberg on hard to treat infections.
