The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned nursing homes of the dangers of antibiotics misuse and outlined the harms involved in misusing antibiotics on aging residents with very low immunity.
The CDC disclosed that most nursing homes prescribe antibiotics the wrong way 40% to 75% of the time, and this comes back with strong consequences on the aging folks taking them. The federal health watchdog listed – wrong drugs, wrong dose, wrong duration, unnecessary prescriptions, and others as bad for patients in nursing homes.
The agency warned that misuse of antibiotics cause the drugs to lose effectiveness against target diseases; it makes viral and bacterial infections to get resistant to drugs; it causes illnesses of their own, and it allergic reactions and interfere with other prescription drugs in the patients.
To this extent, the CDC launched a campaign to educate nursing homes on the dangers of antibiotics misuse on 4 million residents across the United Nations, warning that infections are getting fueled by drug-resistant superbugs increasing at greater numbers in the body and spreading to other people.
The CDC lists about 18 top antibiotic-resistant infections that sicken over 2 million people every year and kill 23,000; contributing to the deaths of several patients. CDC director Tom Frieden observed that the only way to keep aging Americans safe from drug-resistant superbugs is to ensure antibiotics are used appropriately at all times and everywhere, particularly in nursing homes.
CDC warns physicians to be aware of the fact that prescription antibiotics kill sensitive bacteria but causes resistant bacteria to survive and thrive; while prescribing them for illnesses which they are not developed to treat causes bacteria and virus to grow resistant to their use.
Sometimes the antibiotics wipe out good bacteria that fight infections together with the bad ones, and this is what makes certain infections like Clostridium difficile to lose control and spread faster – sickening over 250,000 annually and killing 15,000 every year. It then starts to spread in nursing homes and hospitals among other health facilities.
“Bad antibiotic effects don’t come until weeks or months later, and frankly all we [prescribers] see is the upside when we’re dealing with a sick mom or dad,” says researcher Christopher Crnich, who has published articles on antibiotic overuse, and is a hospital epidemiologist at William S. Middleton Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.
