Good news: Unnecessary antibiotic use appears to be in decline
Someone appears to be smitten with a vaccine.
Three years ago, Dr. Carlos Grijalva of Vanderbilt University was the lead investigator of a study that found the vaccine Prevnar to be effective in lowering rates of pneumonia in babies and toddlers.
More recently Dr. Grijalva was the lead investigator of a study that examined 12 years of hospital records, covering more than six billion visits to doctors, clinics, and hospitals. And this study produced some very good news: Between 1996 and 2006, rates of prescriptions for antibiotics dropped by about one-third.
As I’ve noted in several e-Alerts, antibiotics are often inappropriately prescribed to treat conditions for which the drugs have no effect, such as flu, the common cold, and ear infections. This overuse is a key contributor to antibiotic resistance in the general population, and has prompted the mutation of powerful bacteria strains that are very hard to control.
Dr. Grijalva and his colleagues say three factors have lead to the drop in antibiotic use: 1) Widespread efforts to reduce the unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics, 2) Flu vaccines, and 3) the use of Prevnar.
Hmm. Sort of seems like the antibiotic research is a drug advertisement wrapped in a study, even though Dr. Grijalva apparently has no financial connection to Wyeth, the maker of Prevnar.
To be fair, Prevnar appears to be a fairly safe vaccine with mostly mild side effects. Since its launch in 2000, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting Service has logged in 2,500 hospitalizations linked to Prevnar, and 545 of those patients died. Sadly, this is actually considered a good track record for a vaccine (although I expect there are 545 families out there who would disagree).
It’s good to know that efforts to inform the public about antibiotic resistance seem to be working. Too bad they couldn’t get the word out without a drug sales pitch.
Source:
“Fewer in U.S. Get Antibiotics for Coughs, Colds” Maggie Fox, Reuters Health, 8/18/09, reutershealth.com
