| Parents
of irritable children with ear infections should heed warning
that antibiotics may no longer be prescribed for common ear
infections. This initiative contradicts many years of pediatric
advice and is expected to disappoint the sleep-deprived parents
of whimpering toddlers with painful ear infections.
Health officials are hoping to slow down the rise of antibiotic-resistant
germs created by overuse of the drugs used to treat ear infections.
The medical board must formally approve these guidelines before
they are published to doctors.
For a number of years, health officials have been emphasizing
that the drugs should not be used for viruses such as colds
because they don’t help. Experts feel the power of the
antibiotics should be reserved for significant illnesses,
where 80 percent don’t get better in a matter of days
and can actually die.
The currently proposed guidelines state that doctors would
only be able to prescribe antibiotics for children with serious
middle ear infections, such as acute otitis media, and simply
use observation for milder cases.
Approximately 10 million prescriptions are written for the
5 to 6 million children under age five suffering from ear
infections each year. Studies have shown that antibiotics
do very little for a child’s ear infection pain and common
painkillers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen work just
as well as prescribed antibiotics.
Yahoo!
News March 2, 2004
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