|
Doctors Urged to Delay Kids' Earache Drugs
The above headline comes from the June 6, 2003 edition
of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC). The article starts off by
saying, "Doctors are being advised to withhold antibiotics for two to
three days for many children with earaches in an effort to curb the
growing problem of antibiotic resistance." The Academy of Pediatrics is
planning on initiating a campaign called, "watchful waiting" this fall in
response to the growing problem.
According to the AJC article, about 10 million
prescriptions for antibiotics are written every year for kids with ear
infections. This number represents nearly half of all antibiotics used
among preschoolers. However the article notes that 81 percent of the ear
problems go away without medication, according to the U.S. Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, a division of the Department of Health
and Human Services. (see
article here)
Dr. Richard Rosenfeld, a pediatric ear, nose and
throat specialist at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, says,
"You're not getting a lot of bang for your antibiotic buck with this
disease." Dr. Rosenfeld spoke at a Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention conference in Atlanta and is helping the Academy of Pediatrics
finalize its guidelines. Those new guidelines tell pediatricians and
family physicians to hold off on antibiotics for children older than 6
months if doctors aren't sure of a true ear infection. The new guidelines
also suggest that antibiotics should be given for just five days, instead
of seven to 10 days, for children older than 2.
The AJC article also noted that many earaches are
viral and don't involve fluid in the middle ear, a sign of infection.
Nearly 20 percent of true ear infections are caused by viruses for which
antibiotics don't work. Dr. Gerald Reisman, with Dunwoody Pediatrics in
Atlanta noted, "It may take a while for parents to accept the new approach
away from routinely using antibiotics to treat their children. Parents
often have the expectation that their child is sick and needs an
antibiotic to get well, and some really put the pressure on," he said.
"But now we can say, 'It's not just me. It's the CDC and the Academy of
Pediatrics.' "
Dr. Rich Bessler, a CDC infectious disease
specialist, noted that other countries in Europe have successfully
implemented campaigns to delay antibiotic use for earaches. Dr. Rosenfeld
closed the article by suggesting that parents need to realize that an
earache, even though sometimes painful, is almost always harmless.
|