Summary: How can overuse of antibiotics cause more harm than good?If you've caught the flu, you might think that to get over it you should be laying low for a few days, drinking lots of fluids, and letting it pass out of your system. However, if you've gone to the doctors office, you might be prescribed antibiotics. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Atlanta (CDC), 14,487 patients with the flu were given antibiotic prescriptions and 56 percent of those prescriptions were for broad-spectrum antibiotics. The report also found that the prescribing patterns showed that narrow-spectrum antibiotics were prescribed to around 60 percent of pediatric patients, compared with more than 20 percent of adults, and the broad-spectrum antibiotic macrolides were prescribed to nearly 50 percent of adults, but only about 20 percent of children. Listen in as Kevin Klauer, DO, shares why there's an overuse of antibiotics, as well as if this overuse can cause more health issues.
