Antibiotics Overused In Treatment Of Swine Flu

By Sacha Pfeiffer
Nov 9, 2009, 5:12 AM
2 Comments

At least one big local health insurance company is reporting a troublesome trend related to the H1N1 swine flu outbreak: The overuse of antibiotics to treat the illness.

Not surprisingly, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is seeing an increase in doctor visits by people with flu-like symptoms, but it’s also seeing a rise in prescriptions for antibiotics to treat those symptoms. That is surprising because antibiotics do little to nothing to fight the flu as flus are caused by viruses, and antibiotics fight infections caused by bacteria.

“That, perhaps, is a little concerning,” said Allen Maltz, chief financial officer at Blue Cross, “because the overuse of antibiotics in general is something that society ought to be concerned about.”

Taking antibiotics unnecessarily can raise your risk of getting an infection later that’s antibiotic-resistant. Most flus are treated simply with fever-reducing medicines, fluids and rest.

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Puah Rae

I am wondering if the cause of these antibiotic prescriptions has anything to do with the report that, of the healthy children who have died of flu, most if not all had a co-existing bacterial infection. Many of those children died quickly. This may be a “better safe than sorry” response to that report.
Darlene March

I agree with Puah Rae above. When I go into his office with bronchitis–he says it might be viral and waits to treat with antibiotics. He says you must have certain signs, which makes sense, but for me it’s just a deep bronchial cough. As a result, I’m sicker than usual, and when the antibiotics kick in I’m much better, and that’s proof it’s a bacterial infection. I believe that doctors have been trained to be conservative when it comes to treating patients, causing the patient to suffer longer than necessary.