Antibiotics common to early pandemic COVID-19: Shot

In the early days of COVID-19, pandemic antibiotics were frequently prescribed to critically ill patients, even though the disease was caused by the virus.

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In the early days of COVID-19, pandemic antibiotics were frequently prescribed to critically ill patients, even though the disease was caused by the virus.

Win McNamie / Getty Images

Doctors treating patients with COVID-19 early in the pandemic often reached for antibiotics. However, these drugs are almost always useless, and antibiotic abuse is a serious concern.

Some research groups, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan And Bristol, England, I am observing this tendency.Currently, Pew Charitable Trust researchers Considered more data And put those findings in the context of long-term concerns about the fate of antibiotics.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Estimated to be about 3 million Americans get infections caused by drug-resistant microorganisms each year. An estimated 35,000 Americans die each year from these difficult-to-treat infections.

As a result, hospitals are obliged to comply with rules that limit unnecessary use of antibiotics. Abuse of these drugs accelerates the development of new drug-resistant strains.

However, these rules were not strictly adhered to, especially during the early COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the scene the doctor faced. “You have a patient in front of you with this potentially deadly illness,” he says. Dr. Susan Swindels, Infectious Disease Specialist, University of Nebraska Medical Center. “They have a fever and a cough and have difficulty breathing. So the overwhelming desire is to do whatever you can.”

In the absence of effective medication, it often meant reaching for antibiotics. Some patients were treated in case they actually developed bacterial pneumonia instead of COVID-19. Doctors also thought that the patient could have both COVID-19 and a bacterial infection. The superinfection is fairly common among people hospitalized for influenza.

At the time, she said, “there were few proven cures for COVID, so people were trying all sorts of things.”

“I think we are all aware of the abuse of COVID,” she said. And it’s almost not unique. “Many people with the flu or cold are prescribed antibiotics when they don’t need them. That’s definitely a problem.”

Rachel Zetts of Pew Charitable Trusts documents the use of antibiotics for COVID-19. A study of a group of about 5,000 inpatients, primarily in the Midwest, found that more than half were on antibiotics, even though most patients did not have a bacterial infection. ..

Patients usually got antibiotics immediately before doctors performed tests to rule out bacterial infections.

Doing that is “not a bad habit in nature,” says Zets co-author Dr. Pew David Hyun. “This is the tool that healthcare providers need to treat when a suspected bacterial infection hits a hospital door.”

Immediate treatment can save the lives of people with sepsis, for example. It is caused by a bacterial infection.

However, as the pandemic progressed, it became increasingly clear that antibiotics did not help most COVID-19 patients.

Doctors usually stopped treatment within a few days after noticing that the patient would not benefit, their study found. Even so, this practice can contribute to the abuse of antibiotics and gradually erode their potency. Hyun said hospitals have been forced to adopt guidelines to curb inappropriate antibiotic use in recent years.

“What we are concerned about is that the progress we have made in the last few years can be reversed.”

Previous studies apply primarily to the medical practice used during the first 6 months of the pandemic. Since then, doctors have obtained effective medications and learned that patients rarely get secondary bacterial infections.

Swindels says she has reduced her urge to get antibiotics at her hospital.

“It’s still some progress, but it’s improved,” she says.

These lessons may have been learned in most places where COVID-19 is treated. Pew researchers want to see the results of the follow-up to see if that really is the case.

You can contact Richard Harris, correspondent for NPR Science [email protected]..