The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) recently joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fighting against the rising rates of antibiotic resistance around the world.
Antibiotics have been crucial to modern medicine. Unfortunately, because of overuse, these drugs have also resulted in a steady rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
To show unity against this health problem, the health leaders have released a joint statement. It encourages doctors to make sound judgments in prescribing antibiotics to patients.
"Based on current prescribing data, these experts determined that at least 30 percent of overall antibiotic use in outpatient settings is unnecessary," they said in the statement.
Today, approximately 2 million Americans contract antibiotic-resistant infections each year. Roughly 23,000 people die because of these infections.
"For example, antibiotics can cause adverse events ranging from minor side effects to serious allergic reactions, and antibiotic use increases the potential for a patient to develop an infection caused by Clostridium difficile, which can sometimes cause life-threatening diarrhea," the leaders said.
The goal is to stop overprescribing antibiotics in order to stop increasing antibiotic resistance.
"The majority of this reduction would come from reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics for acute respiratory conditions," they said. "These conditions account for 44 percent of antibiotic prescriptions in outpatient facilities, and half of these prescriptions are unnecessary."
