Amid rising worries over antibiotic resistance, a new study suggests the drugs were overprescribed to patients during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic, raising fresh concerns about efforts to avoid the spread of so-called superbugs.
In 96% of the cases, antibiotics were given to patients before a bacterial infection was confirmed. To wit, a first antibiotic was prescribed at the time of admission or within the first 48 hours of hospitalization. Yet such prescribing implies a degree of guesswork, since it can typically take 48 hours or more to confirm a bacterial infection, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts, which conducted the analysis.
Although antibiotics can’t treat viral infections, the Pew analysts speculated that physicians may have been worried about secondary bacterial infections or were uncertain about distinguishing between pneumonia caused by Covid-19 and bacterial pneumonia. There was also limited understanding and experience in managing Covid-19 during the first few months of the pandemic.
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