Antibiotics Dispensed to Privately Insured Pregnant Women with Urinary Tract Infections - United States, 2014.

Antibiotics Dispensed to Privately Insured Pregnant Women with Urinary Tract Infections - United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018 Jan 12;67(1):18-22 Authors: Ailes EC, Summers AD, Tran EL, Gilboa SM, Arnold KE, Meaney-Delman D, Reefhuis J Abstract Urinary tract infections (UTIs) occur in about 8% of pregnant women, and untreated UTIs can have serious consequences, including pyelonephritis, preterm labor, low birth weight, and sepsis (1). Pregnant women are typically screened for UTIs during early pregnancy, and those with bacteriuria are treated with antibiotics (1,2). Antibiotic stewardship is critical to improving patient safety and to combating antibiotic resistance. Because of the potential risk for birth defects, including anencephaly, heart defects, and orofacial clefts, associated with use of sulfonamides and nitrofurantoin during pregnancy (3), a 2011 committee opinion from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended that sulfonamides and nitrofurantoin may be prescribed in the first trimester of pregnancy only when other antimicrobial therapies are deemed clinically inappropriate (4). To assess the effects of these recommendations, CDC analyzed the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Database* to examine antibiotic prescriptions filled by pregnant women with UTIs. Among 482,917 pregnancies in 2014, 7.2% of women had an outpatient UTI diagnosis during the 90 days before the date of ...
Source: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkl... - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Source Type: research