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Fewer US doctors are prescribing
antibiotics to children and teens than in 1990, likely due to efforts
to curb the alarming rise in infections that are resistant to antibiotics,
according to researchers.
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia found that doctors offered only 30
million prescriptions for antibiotics during office visits in the years
1999-2000 to children younger than 15, a marked decrease from the 45 million
prescriptions written between 1989 and 1990.
The decrease occurred despite
the fact that children had just as many office visits during the later
years as they did in 1989 and 1990, the authors note in the June 19th
issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
McCaig told Reuters Health
she believes the dip in antibiotic prescribing stems from an increased
awareness that giving unneeded antibiotics helps propagate the bacteria
that are resistant to antibiotics, putting the entire population at risk.
"The most likely explanations
(for the decline) are media attention to the problem of antibiotic resistance
and the efforts of many organizations, which during the 1990s joined forces
to educate physicians and parents about appropriate antibiotic use,"
she said.
McCaig and her team base their
findings on surveys of between 2,500 and 3,500 physicians conducted from
1989 to 1990, and then later from 1999 to 2000. The physicians reported
on their distribution of antibiotics in up to 13,600 office visits with
patients younger than 15.
JAMA
June 19, 2002;287:3096-3102, 3103-3109, 3133-3135 (Full Text Article)
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