During Get Smart About Antibiotics Week, Nov. 14-20, pediatricians can join the health care community to raise awareness of the threat of antibiotic resistance and the need for judicious use of antibiotics.
The Academy has joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Pew Charitable Trusts effort supported by 12 national health organizations (http://bit.ly/2elx7ie). The collaborative aims to support the effort to expand stewardship efforts, fill research gaps around effective interventions for improved prescribing and help health care professionals and the public use antibiotics appropriately.
Antibiotic overprescribing in outpatient settings puts children at risk of serious adverse events and is the leading source of pediatric Clostridium difficile infections.
By 2020, the U.S. aims to reduce such inappropriate use of antibiotics in outpatient settings by 50%. Reaching this goal requires a significant reduction in unnecessary antibiotic use for acute respiratory conditions, which account for 44% of outpatient prescriptions. Half are unnecessary prescriptions.
Access the following resources to learn more:
- Judicious Use of Antibiotics, a free online course for residents and members, http://shop.aap.org/EQIPP-Judicious-Use-of-Antibiotics
- New AAP clinical report on systemic and topical fluoroquinolones, http://bit.ly/2e9Pz9J
- AAP policy on judicious prescribing for upper respiratory infections, http://bit.ly/1KSeDtk
- AAP Red Book chapter on antimicrobial stewardship, http://bit.ly/2d3Yk6n
- CDC website, https://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/week/
- National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, http://1.usa.gov/1LRLnUQ
