NEW YORK, March 22, (RTRS): Doctors need to give antibiotics to more than 12,000 people with acute respiratory infections to prevent just one of them from being hospitalized with pneumonia, according to a new study. And that small benefit is outweighed by the very real risks that go along with antibiotics — both from serious side effects and the promotion of resistant “superbugs,” researchers say “This study is actually reassuring to both doctors and patients. What we said all along (is) that antibiotics are not helpful or not needed for the upper respiratory infections — I think this supports that,” said Dr Sharon Meropol, the study’s lead author, from Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.

The problem of microbial resistance to drugs is growing, and research shows that overuse of antibiotics is a major contributor. One recent study found, for example, that resistant superbugs proliferated after cold-andflu season, suggesting they had been fed by seasonal antibiotic use. Other studies have shown that many of the respiratory infections for which doctors give antibiotics are caused by viruses, against which antibiotics are no use.

When a respiratory infection is caused by bacteria, though, antibiotics can help, and the drugs may prevent a serious chest infection from becoming full-blown pneumonia, which is especially dangerous for the elderly and young children. Dr Jeffrey Linder said the message regarding antibiotics is still the same — that they should only be prescribed for a minority of sinus and ear infections, strep throat and pneumonia, but not for most other common respiratory infections. “The risk-benefit is just not there. I think the message doesn’t change, and this doesn’t even factor in the risk of antibiotic resistance,” he said.