Antibiotics being used during this pandemic in patients with severe COVID infection is a great concern. There are no guidelines to approach such a case. Many experts opined that Doxycycline has anti IL6 property, so it became a routine for many to prescribe even in mild cases. Azithromycin was similarly started in most of the cases because it was claimed to have anti-inflammatory action. There were case series showing Cotrimoxazole shows good response. Many such antibiotics became a routine prescription for COVID of any severity. And when the patients severity increased, many broad spectrum antibiotics, merely based on Leukocytosis with a bad lung condition( in Xray or CT) . There was no antimicrobial stewardship visible.
Can any of my friend/colleague suggest a better approach?
Antibiotics like Doxycycline and Azithromycin have been used as over the counter easily available drugs in this pandemic. This occurred either due to self prescription Or on the prescription of a local practitioner without any reasonable indication of their usage. This has certainly led to some increase in AMR during this pandemic. Proper antimicrobial stewardship programs are the need of hour to combat this resistance and stoppage of misuse of these drugs. Antibiotics in Covid times are usually prescribed to cases if bacterial coinfection is present, that too with proper antibiotics sensitivity testing not irrationally.
Ceftriaxone and azithromycin are the antibiotics used in covid 19 patients which is not supported by laboratory data. This could probably lead to alteration of gut flora in such patients with negative outcomes
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Disease
- Infectious Diseases