More About Antibiotics Over-Prescription

The Star Phoenix has an informative piece about the facts of over-prescription of antibiotics. As it states in the article over the years antibiotics have been over-prescribed to the point that the World Health Organization has declared that microorganism drug resistance is considered a crisis. Antibiotics should be used to treat bacterial infections but they have often been prescribed to treat viral infections, which they are ineffective against. In addition to over-prescription creating a crisis of drug resistant microorganisms there is a healthcare cost issue.Among those common ailments antibiotics have been over prescribed for are sinusitis. Sinusitis can have many causes and while bacterial infection is certainly one of them it is not necessarily the most common. Viral infections and physical obstructions are also common causes of sinusitis and treating these instances with antibiotics is ineffective. It's an unnecessary cost and is contributing to the epidemic of over-prescribed antibiotics. If you've been suffering from chronic sinusitis, experiencing sinusitis symptoms for 90 days or more, you should seek treatment but be wary of an antibiotics prescription unless the cause has been clearly identified as bacterial. For more information and to get your questions answered, contact our office.