Public health experts have been warning for years that we’re needlessly over-using antibiotics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping up the warnings last week. In a study released last week the CDC found that hospitals vary widely in the rates they prescribe antibiotics. Some hospitals prescribe three times as many antibiotics as other hospitals with similar patients. The upshot? We could create strains of bacteria that our current array of antibiotics can’t treat.
Sheilah Kast talks about it with Dr. Sara Cosgrove, an infectious diseases physician and Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
