The American College of Physicians and the CDC have issued new guidelines for prescribing antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections in adults.
Antibiotics are not needed for adults who have the common cold, bronchitis, sore throat or sinus infections.
That’s the advice from the American College of Physicians and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which just issued guidelines for prescribing antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in adults.
These types of infections are the most common reason for visits to the doctor and for outpatient antibiotic prescriptions for adults, the researchers said.
The advice, published Jan 18 in Annals of Internal Medicine, is designed to combat what the two organizations see as overuse of such treatments.
According to an ACP news release, unpublished CDC data estimates “50 percent of antibiotic prescriptions may be unnecessary or inappropriate in the outpatient setting, which equates to over $3 billion in excess costs.”
