The American College of Physicians issued new practices last April, taking into account these researches to treat community-acquired pneumonia outside a hospital and those diseases caused by microorganisms in the urinary tract without complications, the article recalled.

Rachael Lee, first author of the advice statement and an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, pointed out that these are some infections with currently unnecessarily long treatments.

Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles County/U.S.C. Medical Center and infectious disease specialist, as he alerted about drug-resistant microbes and their rapid evolution.

‘Doctors used to prescribe antibiotics only for the time necessary to control an infection and keep patient out of danger. But durations kept increasing with the mistaken belief that if I try longer, I will prevent relapse due to resistant pathogens,’ Spellberg said.

The theory was exemplified by Spellberg with the ‘carnivorous’ MRSA (Staphylococcus aureus) resistant to methicillin and other strains of microbes causing urinary infections, tuberculosis and malaria.

Spellberg mentioned over 70 studies about 14 infectious diseases proving the effectiveness of short-course antibiotics, the relationship with reduced microbial occurrence, as well as at least 12 randomized controlled trials in adults showing good results in treating pneumonia.

pgh/Pll/oda / nmr