Questions over advice to finish courses of antibiotics

Conclusions This narrative review challenges current medical advice that patients should complete their course of antibiotics, by suggesting that concerns around antibiotic treatment are driven by fears of under treatment, when we should instead be concerned about over use. Professor Peter Openshaw, President of the British Society for Immunology and Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London commented: "It could be that antibiotics should be used only to reduce the bacterial burden to a level that can be coped with by the person's own immune system. In many previously healthy patients with acute infections, letting them stop the antibiotics once they feel better has considerable appeal. However, there are clearly circumstances where antibiotics should be given for extended periods." "Ideally, there should be clinical trials to support the duration of therapy but in the meantime it should be up to the prescriber to recommend how long to continue treatment." Professor Mark Woolhouse, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: "The article underlines that educating not only patients but also doctors is essential to changing current prescribing practices. It is very clear that prescribing practices do need to change; there is every indication that current volumes of antibiotic usage are too high to be sustainable. We need to start to use antibiotics more wisely before it's too late. The longer we...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication QA articles Source Type: news