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Our sad love affair with antibiotics

 
Published Feb. 4, 2015

When our throats burn, we're conditioned to reach for antibiotics. When our noses run, we hound doctors for antibiotics. When we're too groggy to drive to the doctor, we search our medicine cabinets for leftover antibiotics.

Four out of five Americans are prescribed the drugs every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Up to half of the estimated 258 million prescriptions are unnecessary, the agency reports.

"We need a total culture change," said Jesse Goodman, director of Georgetown University's Center on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship. "Patient and doctor must understand these drugs are precious resources. The more we use them, and the more unwisely, the more resistance."

President Obama announced a plan last week to nearly double the amount of federal funding dedicated to fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a national health threat the CDC says annually causes an estimated 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths.

Our overuse of antibiotics might be a branding problem. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a plight triggered by overuse. And overuse is driven partly by a pervasive belief that the drugs can conquer all. It started nearly a century ago.

Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist, discovered penicillin in 1928 and, with it, effective treatment for pneumonia, gonorrhea and rheumatic fever. Advertisements in the 1940s and '50s intensified our growing affection. One popular public health sign declared: "Penicillin cures Gonorrhea in four hours!" Another brand of antibiotic "candettes" promised "immediate, soothing relief" to sore throat sufferers.

"They were seen as safe, miracle drugs with few side effects," Goodman said. "It got out of hand."

Pharmaceutical companies today are less outwardly aggressive about peddling antibiotics. "But in some cases," he said, "marketing can promote an antibiotic as powerful and reliable and, anecdotally, lead people to perhaps reach for it when an older or less broadly active one would have worked."

The result: Slowly and surely, we're weakening our miracle drugs. The first step to recovery is to stop thinking they're dispensable.

About 36 percent of Americans incorrectly believe antibiotics can fight viral infections, a recent Pew survey found. The drugs can treat only bacterial ailments, like strep throat and urinary tract infections and a range of sexually transmitted diseases.

We can't banish upper respiratory infections, for example, with antibiotics. Coughs and colds are generally caused by viruses. But as many as 50 percent of people who visit their doctor's office for infections, even for runny noses, will walk out with antibiotics, the CDC reports.

And a recent survey by Harvard researchers found doctors prescribed antibiotics to 60 percent of sore throat patients, though the drug is thought to be necessary in only 10 percent of cases. A whopping 73 percent of patients diagnosed with acute bronchitis — best treated with ibuprofen and a humidifier — received unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.

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