home | refresh Medical Pearls from the Internet Medical Association

Antibiotics appear to be of limited benefit in patients with acute bronchitis. They may have a small beneficial effect in some patients with underlying risk factors who may not have been included in trials to date. Comment: Most authorities recommend no antibiotics initially in the treatment of acute bronchitis. It seems that our first step should be decreasing antibiotic usage among farm animals, which create antibiotic resistant bacteria that ultimately enter the food supply and environment. Antibiotic resistance isn't just due to giving people antibiotics, it also appears to be significantly related to use in animals, where antibiotics are frequently given routinely for "general health" and not for illness or infection. Let's address inappropriate antibiotic usage in animals first, then we can address over-use in humans. Focusing only on human consumption is short sighted and narrow minded. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014 Mar 1;3:CD000245.    (retrieved Mar, 2014). There are currently 1090 pearls in the database. While every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy, mistakes can and do occur. Use databank at your own risk. All pearls © 2024 by the Internet Medical Association. Click Here to view more medical pearls.