Recent studies have shown that the increasing rate of drug-resistant infections correlates directly with the overuse of antibiotics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, as many as one-third of all prescriptions written in doctors' offices and outpatient clinics each year are unnecessary, meaning they are prescribed to treat viral infections or to assuage patient demands for a pill to cure what ails them. If the ACP-AISM has its way, this practice will stop. They can affect anybody. What you do affects the person next to you.
Antibiotics kill bacteria, but colds are caused by viruses.
If you have a cold, you need decongestants, fluid, analgesics and rest. What we really need is a rest pill. The ACP-AISM is targeting its 115,000 member physicians with an antibiotics resistance campaign. Through its Web site, journals, and regional and national meetings, the college is relentlessly pursuing the serious threat of emerging antibiotic resistance. When the ACP meets at its annual session in March 2001 in Atlanta, no fewer than 21 courses will be devoted to the subject.