Antibiotics may not help survival of patients hospitalized with viral
infections -study
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[March 25, 2023]
By Natalie Grover
LONDON (Reuters) - Most patients admitted to hospitals with acute viral
infections are given antibiotics as a precaution against bacterial
co-infection, but this practice may not improve survival, new research
suggests.
Researchers investigated the impact of antibiotic use on survival in
more than 2,100 patients in a hospital in Norway between 2017 and 2021
and found that giving antibiotics to people with common respiratory
infections was unlikely to lower the risk of death within 30 days.
At the height of the pandemic, antibiotics were prescribed for around
70% of COVID-19 patients in some countries, potentially contributing to
the scourge of antibiotic-resistant pathogens known as superbugs.
This new data, which has not been published in a medical journal,
suggests there is "a huge overuse of antibiotics," said lead author Dr.
Magrit Jarlsdatter Hovind from Akershus University Hospital and the
University of Oslo, Norway.
The overuse and misuse of antibiotics has helped microbes become
resistant to many treatments, a development scientists consider one of
the greatest threats to global health, given the pipeline of replacement
therapies in development is alarmingly sparse.
This latest research, which will be presented at next month's European
Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen,
involved patients who tested positive via nasal or throat swab for viral
infections such as the flu, RSV or COVID-19. Those with confirmed
bacterial infections were excluded from the analysis.
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Ten pills of the antibiotic "Amoxicillin
1000mg" are seen at a pharmacy in Hanau, Germany, May 31, 2018.
REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
In total, 63% of the 2,111 patients
received antibiotics for respiratory infection during their hospital
stay. Overall, 168 patients died within 30 days, of which only 22
had not been prescribed antibiotics.
After accounting for factors including sex, age, severity of disease
and underlying illnesses among patients, the researchers found those
prescribed antibiotics during their hospital stay were twice as
likely to die within 30 days than those not given antibiotics.
The research team noted that the sicker patients and those with more
underlying illnesses were both more likely to get antibiotics and to
die. Other factors such as patients' smoking status could have also
played a role, they said.
"Doctors have to dare to not give antibiotics, instead of doubting
and giving antibiotics just in case," Hovind said.
Given the limitations of a retrospective study such as this one, a
clinical trial, which Hovind and colleagues recently initiated, is
necessary to determine whether patients admitted to hospital with
common respiratory infections should be treated with antibiotics,
she said.
(Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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