Online CPR Certification Blog

The Intake of Antibiotics Depends on Various Factors

The major factors that control the use of antibiotic in the United States of America are the age of the patient and geographical area. However, Lauri A. Hicks from United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta believes that 50% of the prescriptions for the antibiotics are not that necessary. Together with other colleagues they did a data analysis from the database of International Medical Services Health Xponent, on oral antibiotics that were dispensed in 2010. This analysis is meant to aid them to know where the beneficial use of antibiotics is concentrated. That way the drugs will be dispatched in areas that they will be put to their right use.

The Manufacturers Also Affect the Rate of Prescriptions

A huge a mount of courses of antibiotics were prescribed in the year 2010, which amounted to 258 million. This amount of prescription is equal to 833 prescriptions that can be given to a thousand patients. There were the major categories of antibiotics that were prescribed and these are azithromycin, penicillins and macrolides. The highest number of people that prescriptions were given to is children below the age of ten years, and aged people who are above the age of sixty five years. Geographical regions differed where the South of Atlanta recorded a higher rate of antibiotics prescription while the West was a bit lower. The south had 936 prescriptions against the 639 of the western side. The number was calculated against a sample of a thousand persons. The provider of the antibiotics affected the prescriptions too because some of the providers of the antibiotics were preferred than the others, although it was hard to asses the preference of the patients themselves for the reason that they did not visit the premises for diagnoses.

What Brought About Varying Prescriptions

When any medicine is prescribed to patients it has to meet its effectiveness but at times the body becomes resistant to one kind of drug. This is one of the main reasons why there are varying prescriptions for antibiotics. This resistance is a worldwide problem, for instance the prescription of antibiotics for ambulant patients varies a lot in Europe. It can be as a result of the difference in how the illness is presented or the condition that the medicine applies to. Patients are advised to consult widely so as to get the right medication. This will help avoid the problem where most of the prescriptions have been found to be ineffective or the patients takes a bit longer before getting better. Apart from slowed recovery there are other negativities that are brought about by varied prescriptions. There is the wasted resource that patients use when seeking for medication, and then the severe one where the prescribed drugs may cause side effects on the patients which will require more medication.