Nonprescribed Antimicrobial Drugs in Latino Community direction for future research would be to investigate these issues about antimicrobial drug use in a broader communi- ty sampling frame. Third, the results are based on self-reports of behavior, some of which may be somewhat threatening to relate to an interviewer. Thus, the reports of antimicrobial drug importation and acquisition of nonprescribed antimicrobial drugs may be an underreport of actual behavior. Several strategies were used to try and obtain valid reports, includ- ing multiple pretests and having the clinic staff introduce the interviewers to the potential participants. Persons may also have been confused about which medications are antimicrobial drugs. Following the pretests, the interview was modified to contain several instances of descriptions of antimicrobial drugs and names that would be recognizable to the Latino community. Moreover, each time a respondent reported acquiring antimicrobial drugs, the respondent was asked by the inter- viewer to name the drug to make sure that the respondent had actually acquired antimicrobial drugs. If in fact the results represent underreporting, the findings are even more dramatic because nearly 20% acknowledged getting antimicrobial drugs without a prescription in the United States. Our findings suggest that a large public health problem is at hand. However, because this study is one of the first to document the problem and the first, to our knowledge, to specifically focus on both importation and US acquisi- tion of nonprescribed antimicrobial drugs, government agencies have not yet responded to this problem. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has a judicious antibiotic use initiative (South Carolina Careful Antibiotic Use, http://www.scdhec.gov/ health/disease/sccause). Their initiatives are similar to many other initiatives that focus on both physician and patient education, but thus far have not focused on Latinos and nonprescription antimicrobial drug importation and local acquisition. A substantial number of persons within the US Latino community self-medicate with antimicrobial drugs obtained without a prescription both inside and outside the United States, which adds to the reservoir of these drugs in the United States. The public health system and clinicians should be aware of the different health belief systems and Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 11, No. 6, June 2005 887