Some Antibiotics ineffective on 50% of children

It is thought that antibiotic overuse has created more "superbugs". This is a meta study reviewing many other studies. Over all the studies, over 77,000 E. coli samples were collected from people aged 0-17 from 26. Categories for results were 1) members of OECD and 2) non-members of OECD. Within OECD countries, half of all samples were resistant to ampicillin (amoxicillin), a third to co-trimoxazole and a quarter to trimethoprim. 2.1% were resistant to ciprofloxacin, a powerful last-resort antibiotic. Non-OECD countries have shown a much greater resistance. (Do they not know about certain antibiotic standards?) Outside OECD countries, resistance to ciprofloxacin averaged 26.8%.

Some people think that antibiotics are the "easy" way to fix things, just take a pill. Yet again, short term thinking hurts people long term.


Source: GMO Inside, Mar 16, 2016.

The study abstract: Global prevalence of antibiotic resistance in paediatric urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli and association with routine use of antibiotics in primary care: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2016; 352 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i939 (Published 15 March 2016). Link to abstract.