Optimizing antibacterial therapy for respiratory infections described.

2004 MAY 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers outline the optimization of antibacterial therapy for community-acquired respiratory tract infections in children in an era of bacterial resistance.

"The spread of antibacterial resistance in bacteria that commonly cause childhood community-acquired respiratory tract infections (RTIs), such as acute otitis media, community-acquired pneumonia, and acute pharyngitis, is a major healthcare problem. One of the foremost concerns is the rapid increase in penicillin, macrolide, and multidrug resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae. There is also a rising prevalence of macrolide resistance in Streptococcus pyogenes in pockets of the United States, and P-lactamase production in Haemophilus influenzae is widespread," scientists writing in the journal Clinical Pediatrics report.

"Although data are limited, some evidence suggests that resistance to antibacterials can impair bacteriologic and clinical outcomes in childhood RTIs," said Donald E. Low and collaborators at the University of Toronto in Canada and the University of Basel in Switzerland. "Optimizing antibacterial use is important both in the care of individual patients and within strategies to address the wider problem of antibacterial resistance. This involves encouraging judicious antibacterial use (i.e., reducing overuse for viral infection and prophylaxis), and preventing misuse through the wrong choice, dosage, and duration of therapy.

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