Older Americans Are Awash in Antibiotics

Older Americans continue to take too many antibiotics, despite warnings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reports the New York Times . A new CDC study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society estimates that doctors write enough antibiotic prescriptions for every older adult to receive at least one. Antibiotic overuse contributes to a major public health threat by creating drug resistance, with the CDC noting 2 million Americans get antibiotic-resistant infections each year, which end in 23,000 annual fatalities. Moreover, antibiotics interact badly with many drugs older adults take, like statins, blood thinners, and kidney and heart medications. Worse, certain antibiotics carry worrying side effects in themselves. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration are especially concerned with fluoroquinolones like Cipro, whose documented side effects include mental distress.