The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a new wave of additional antibiotic treatments. | stock photo
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a new wave of additional antibiotic treatments. | stock photo
Medical professionals are warning that antibiotic overuse can create drug-resistant germs, meaning that the germ defeats the drug that was intended to kill it.
Each year in the U.S., approximately 23,000 people die from infection due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to Mayo Clinic.
“I’m not the first person to say that we overprescribe antibiotics in our country,” Dr. Michael Foster, a doctor from Michigan ENT & Allergy Specialists, told Sturgis-Coldwater News. “I think a lot of that is just patients that just want something when they go, and they don’t like being told that it’s viral and they can go home. Treating a structural issue with antibiotics over and over again is not the answer. Antibiotic immunity is something that is a real problem; you get drug-resistant bacteria and things like that. As you get older and become more immunocompromised, it can be somebody [who] winds up in the hospital for a long time, not to mention the GI side effects from antibiotics that people struggle with.”
Treatment of COVID-19 has been contributing to antibiotic overuse. A potential unforeseen consequence of the coronavirus is that the increase in prescriptions of antibiotics could be causing more resistance, according to BioWorld.
According Mayo Clinic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that between one-third and one-half of antibiotic use in humans is unnecessary or inappropriate.
Chronic sinusitis treatment may also contribute to overusing antibiotics. Chronic sinusitis is described as a patient having recurring sinus infections over at least a three-month period. The CDC reports that 28.9 million adults have been diagnosed with sinusitis, representing 11.6% of the U.S. population.
One way of reducing the amount of antibiotic prescriptions given to sinus sufferers is to perform balloon sinuplasty, which is a minimally invasive procedure that is done in the doctor's office. The medical journal The Laryngoscope found that, for patients who have undergone a balloon procedure, the average number of antibiotic courses 12 months before treatment was 4.5, but the average number of antibiotic courses in the year after after treatment was reduced to 1.6.
Michigan ENT & Allergy Specialists regularly perform balloon sinuplasty at their offices.
Chronic sinusitis can make it hard to enjoy everyday life. If you think a specialist could help, take this quiz.
Alerts Sign-up