•November 18, 2015•

Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs. However, up to 50 percent of all antibiotics prescribed are not needed or are not effective as prescribed.

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is leading the Illinois Precious Drugs & Scary Bugs campaign to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics. The goals are to increase health care provider and patient knowledge about the harms of inappropriate antibiotic use and support clinicians in improving antibiotic prescribing, particularly for acute respiratory infections.

“Not only are antibiotic resistant bacterial infections becoming more common, many bacteria are becoming resistant to more than one type of antibiotic,” said IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. “The Precious Drugs & Scary Bugs campaign involves partnerships among health care systems, professional associations, health care plans, and other stakeholders across the state to eliminate inappropriate use of antibiotics.”

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in a way that reduces or eliminates the effectiveness of antibiotics. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing drives the evolution of bacteria resistant to antibiotics and undermines the ability to treat common infectious diseases. Each year in the United States, at least two million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 die as a direct result of these infections. Many more people die from other conditions that are complicated by an antibiotic-resistant infection.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.