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Immediate actions you as a healthcare practitioner can take to help limit antibiotic resistance:

• Wash your hands thoroughly between patient visits.
• Do not accede to patients' demands for unneeded antibiotics.
• When possible, prescribe antibiotics that target only a narrow range of bacteria.
• Isolate hospital patients with multidrug-resistant infections.
• Familiarize yourself with local data on antibiotic resistance.

Find out additional information about antibiotic resistance such as societal costs, patient risk factors and prevention strategies...more

What is being done to curb antibiotic resistance?

In September 1999, APUA hosted the Summit on Antimicrobial Resistance in San Francisco, at which an expert international panel created an action plan to stem the rising tide of community-based bacterial resistance. The conference was convened in the wake of the recent alarming reports of deaths from multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the community. The Summit, entitled "Truth and Consequences in Community Medical Practice," addressed solutions to the increasing prevalence of resistant pathogens, antibiotic misuse by both physicians and patients, and factors driving doctors to overprescribe antibiotics. The conclusions reached at these day-long proceedings are strategies recommended by the Summit's participants for effectively managing the crisis of antibiotic resistance.

With about one-third of all outpatient antibiotic prescriptions deemed unnecessary by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and with the increasing wave of drug-resistant bacteria, community physicians and the public at large must take action to improve antibiotic use and curb antibiotic resistance. The expert panel at the 1999 Summit on Antimicrobial Resistance urged action in combatting antibiotic resistance. See the strategies that were recommended by Summit participants...strategies to combat AMR

From IDSA, a pocket card on "Practice Guidelines for the Management of Community Acquired Pneumonia in Immunocompetent Adults". To obtain a copy, please contact IGC at www.myguidelinescenter.com or call at 410-869-3332. Each pocketcard is $5.25.