The Pew Charitable Trusts
In March, nearly 40 individuals from across the country will meet with their legislators to urge Congress to take bipartisan action to prioritize the battle against antibiotic resistance: a looming global health threat that threatens the future of modern medicine. As part of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stand Up to Superbugs initiative, this year’s ambassadors include health care professionals, public health officials, scientists, farmers and ranchers, veterinarians, superbug survivors, and people who have lost loved ones to an antibiotic-resistant infection. They will meet virtually with federal agency leaders and members of Congress to share their superbug stories and expertise, and urge increased commitment and momentum to preserve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics and develop urgently needed new ones.
Additionally, more than 75% of the patients received antibiotic prescriptions for longer than was medically necessary. The researchers noted this occurred more often in rural than urban areas.
Researchers said these issues may stem from doctors failing to stay up-to-date on clinical practice guidelines for antibiotic use. In rural areas, doctors may be prescribing antibiotics for longer durations because of the distance of travel between doctors and patients.
Though inappropriate antibiotic choice and inappropriate length of treatment declined slightly over the study period, researchers said these mistakes are still too common. Inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for uncomplicated urinary tract infections are prevalent and come with serious patient-and-society-level consequences, said lead author Anne Mobley Butler, an assistant professor of medicine and surgery at Washington University.
Nearly half of women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections received the wrong antibiotics and almost three-quarters received prescriptions for longer than necessary, with inappropriately long treatment durations more common in rural areas, according to a study of private insurance claims data published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
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NEW YORK (February 24, 2021) Nearly half of women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections received the wrong antibiotics and almost three-quarters received prescriptions for longer than necessary, with inappropriately long treatment durations more common in rural areas, according to a study of private insurance claims data published today in
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for uncomplicated urinary tract infections are prevalent and come with serious patient- and society-level consequences, said Anne Mobley Butler, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine and surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. Our study findings underscore the need for antimicrobial stewardship interventions to improve outpatient antibiotic prescribing, particularly in rural settings.
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VAN GRACK’S NEW GIG: Brandon Van Grack, the first-ever head of the Justice Department’s FARA office and a lead prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, has left DOJ after more than a decade to become a partner at the law and lobbying firm