Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Groups Urging No Antibiotics for Earaches [another surprise... gee....]

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Wed, 3 Mar 2004 00:10:20 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Groups Urging No Antibiotics for Earaches [another

surprise... gee....]

 

Health - AP

 

Groups Urging No Antibiotics for Earaches

 

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=534 & e=1 & u=/ap/20040303/ap_on_he_\

me/earaches_antibiotics

 

By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer

 

ATLANTA - Parents of cranky children with ear infections be warned:

Antibiotics may no longer be what the doctor orders. Two leading medical groups

are expected to recommend this spring that doctors stop treating most ear

infections in children with antibiotics, federal health officials said Tuesday.

 

The move contradicts years of pediatric practice and is expected to

disappoint weary parents of whimpering, infected toddlers.

 

 

About half of all antibiotics prescribed to preschool children are for

treating ear infections. Health officials believe if they can reduce child

antibiotic use for such infections, they can stop the rise of

antibiotic-resistant germs created by overuse of the drugs.

 

 

" It will mark a dramatic change in appropriate antibiotic use, " said Dr.

Richard Besser, acting chief of the meningitis and special pathogens branch of

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites).

 

 

The guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American

Academy of Family Practice must be formally approved by the medical bodies

before they are published for doctors.

 

 

For years, health officials have been battling improper antibiotic use by

emphasizing that the drugs should not be used for viruses, such as colds,

because they do no good.

 

 

This time, health officials are going even further, urging that

antibiotics also be withheld for bacterial ear infections if they appear to be

minor.

 

 

Most children with ear infections - about 80 percent - typically recover

in two to seven days, Besser and other experts say.

 

 

" We are making a societal trade-off - at the individual level, some kids

may have a little bit longer course of their infection, but for society as a

whole, we will be better served if we don't give them, " said Dr. Richard

Rosenfeld, a member of the committee reviewing the guidelines.

 

 

" We should save the power of antibiotics for people with real significant

illnesses where 80 percent don't get better in a day or two and can actually

die, " he said.

 

 

As the guidelines are currently proposed, doctors would only prescribe

antibiotics for children with serious middle ear infections, known as acute

otitis media. Symptoms include a minimum fever of 102.6 degrees or severe ear

pain. Milder cases would simply be observed.

 

 

Between 5 million and 6 million children under age 5 suffer ear infections

each year. Antibiotics are prescribed in many of those visits, said Rosenfeld,

also director of pediatric otolaryngology at Long Island College Hospital in

Brooklyn, N.Y.

 

 

About 10 million prescriptions each year are written for ear infections in

children of all ages.

 

 

Health officials believe the new guidelines won't cause any extra office

visits for parents, although they may be asked to update pediatricians with

their child's condition by phone, said Dr. Allan Lieberthal, co-chairman of the

medical groups' committee reviewing the guidelines change.

 

 

A specific definition for doctors of what constitutes a serious ear

infection also is expected to reduce antibiotic overuse.

 

 

" Antibiotics only will be considered if it's truly acute otitis media and

not every abnormal-appearing ear, " Lieberthal said.

 

 

Medical studies have found the antibiotics do very little for a child's

ear infection pain. Common painkillers such as acetaminophen or ibuprofren are

effective for that, said Lieberthal, also a pediatrician for Kaiser Permanente

in Panorama City, Calif.

 

 

 

 

 

" Since the discovery of penicillin, when there is a bacterial infection,

antibiotics are given, " Lieberthal said. " Because of the increasing resistance

of common bacteria to antibiotics, the importance of limiting their use is

essential. "