Despite the threat of a future in which we have few defenses against deadly bacterial infections, Americans don't seem to be too freaked out. We're still awfully good at over-using antibiotics (by, for instance, using them to treat the wrong types of infections) and not completing antibiotic treatment, both of which increase the risk of bacterial resistance, according to an abstract presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia.
Well, okay. Not quite. The study only analyzed the behavior of Pennsylvanians, so it doesn't apply to all Americans. But what they found wasn't very promising: 38 percent of their respondents had been prescribed antibiotics in the past year; nearly half of these had received at least two prescriptions. Of those who had used antibiotics, more than one in ten didn't complete treatment.
Were these prescriptions even being used to treat bacteria? Not in nearly a third of the cases: 30 percent of the respondents who used antibiotics did so to treat a cough or the sniffles, symptoms that are most frequently associated with viral, rather than bacterial, infections. And finally, on a slightly different note, only a little over a quarter of the respondents said they had ever tried to purchase meat raised without the use of antibiotics.
The solution to this ongoing problem is education, education, education, say the authors, which include University of Pennsylvania assistant professor Shelley Rankin. The oldest, most educated and wealthiest respondents had the best habits, which isn't surprising when you consider that antibiotic-free meat is typically more expensive than meat from conventionally-raised animals. Even so, the abstract's findings imply that getting the word out there could make a big difference. We need "simultaneous interventions among clinicians and patients," as well as "additional measures to engage consumers" who buy meat, write the authors.
How do we do that? Well, I'm hoping this blog post is a start. You can help too, super smart 60 Second Science readers: spread the word!
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Comments
Scott says:
Maybe the lack of concern is because the relationship between super bugs, and the causes of them you've cited here, are not clear. Has it been proven that meat raised on antibiotics or that prescription drug users are truely the cause of the rise in drug resistant bacteria ? If the link was conclusive, would that change anything ? Probably not. We should concentrate on creating more potent super bug killers, drugs or otherwise, and forget the idea of a worried public changing it's collective behavior.
March 19, 2008 10:41 PM
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