Beware Antibiotics for Ear Infections
Here's something to keep in mind the next time your child has an ear infection and you're tempted to ask the doctor for some antibiotics: A new study found that kids who took antibiotics to treat acute ear infections appeared to be more likely to end up having more ear infections down the road.
Ear infections are one of the most common childhood ailments and doctors have long been concerned that antibiotics are overused for the condition because many kids would probably get better without them. The concern is that the overuse of antibiotics is leading to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant infections.
For the new study, Maroeska Rovers of the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands and colleagues surveyed parents of 168 Dutch children ages six months to two years who had participated in a study evaluating antibiotics for ear infections in 53 general medical practices.
Over the next three and a half years, 47 of the 75 children who had received the antibiotic amoxicillin had suffered at least one recurrence of an ear infection, compared to only 37 out of 86 children who had received a placebo. That translates into the kids who had gotten antibiotics being about 20 percent more likely to suffer a recurrence, the researchers reported recently in the British medical journal known as BMJ.
The researchers say the reason could be that the antibiotics somehow weaken the child's natural immune system response to the infection, making them more vulnerable to infections later on. Another explanation is that the antibiotics may change the makeup of microbes that exist in the child's respiratory system, making them more vulnerable to bugs that make them sick.
In any event, the findings provide more evidence why doctors should try to use antibiotics as sparingly as possible, the researchers say.
July 16, 2009; 7:00 AM ET
Categories: Family Health , General Health , Motherhood
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