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   Antibiotic Overuse In Southeastern States, USA    
      
   Last updated: 16 November 2011 at 5am PST    
      
   New research shows that parts of the U.S., in particular the Southeast, show   
   patterns of outpatient antibiotic overuse. According to Extending the Cure, a   
   project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy this problem   
   could intensify the    
   rate at which these powerful drugs become useless.    
      
   The findings coincide with the start of the Centers for Disease Control and   
   Prevention (CDC) initiative called "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work",   
   which is an annual effort to decrease overuse of antibiotics that lasts   
   throughout the week urging    
   Americans to use antibiotics wisely. According to the CDC's estimation each   
   year $1.1 billion is spent on unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions just for   
   adult upper respiratory infections alone. These prescriptions also accelerate   
   the development of    
   resistance to important antibiotic therapies.    
      
   This week, Extending the Cure introduced a new tool, the new Drug Resistance   
   Index (DRI), allowing non-experts to track changes in antibiotic effectiveness   
   over time. A paper of the British Medical Journal Open describes the new DRI,   
   which is comparable    
   with the Consumer Price Index concept.    
      
   Extending the Cure has released interactive maps, called ResistanceMap, where   
   antibiotic consumption in the U.S. from 1999 to 2007 can be tracked and   
   display the overall decrease in antibiotic dispensing, i.e. 12% over this time   
   period. Despite this    
   decrease, these images highlight an alarming trend in high antibiotic use   
   across the Southeast compared with Pacific Northwest states. In areas where   
   antibiotic rates are at their highest, like Kentucky and West Virginia for   
   example, residents are seen    
   to take almost double as many antibiotics per capita compared with those   
   living in Alaska and Oregon.    
      
   Other key findings of the study show that the highest antibiotic use in the   
   U.S. are Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, although   
   the maps also display higher than average antibiotics use in other regions of   
   the country. Antibiotic    
   use per state can be seen at ResistanceMap. 
    
      
   From 1999 to 2007 prescriptions have soared up by 49% for a powerful class of   
   antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. Simultaneously, antibiotic resistance   
   is on the increase, for example compared to 1999, these drugs currently tend   
   to be seven times less    
   effective against Escherichia coli, the most frequent cause of bacterial   
   infections.    
      
   The number one of the antibiotics 'hit list' still remains to be penicillin,   
   which accounts for almost one out of three prescriptions in the United States.   
   As physicians increasingly turn to more powerful antibiotics, the market share   
   of these standard    
   drugs has simultaneously dropped by 28%.    
      
   According to the study, high per capita antibiotic usage could be a sign of   
   consumers mistakenly demanding antibiotics with physicians prescribing them   
   for colds or the flu, even though these illnesses are caused by viruses and   
   cannot be treated with    
   these drugs. Additional research must be carried out to gain a better   
   understanding of the driving factors behind antibiotic use.   
      
   Written by Petra Rattue    
      
      
   http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237775.php    
      
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