Antibiotic overuse still a problem, experts say
Dr. Mike 
SAN FRANCISCO -- Experts have been pounding the same message over and over again for years - overuse of antibiotics has helped fuel the rise of drug-resistant "superbugs.''
Yet the abuse of antibiotics remains a cause for concern and could even be on the rise, scientists and doctors told a drugs meeting here.
"The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms continues to be a major problem and an increasing problem,'' Dr. Thomas Hooten, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, told reporters. "It is hard to break old habits.''
People still have not understood the message that antibiotics are useless against viruses, which cause the majority of colds, flu and related illnesses, Hooten and other experts told a seminar at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco.
The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one-third of the 150 million antibiotic prescriptions written for outpatients every year are unnecessary.
Such misuse of drugs is a major factor in the 50 percent jump in antibiotic-resistant infections over the past 23 years, the CDC says - including the rise of bacteria resistant to all known drugs.
Source: Fox News
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