A new study suggests that the use of antibiotics may not improve survival rates for patients with viral infections, despite being routinely administered as a precautionary measure against bacterial co-infection. The research, which investigated the impact of antibiotics on survival rates in over 2,100 patients at a Norwegian hospital between 2017 and 2021, found that those prescribed antibiotics were twice as likely to die within 30 days than those who were not given antibiotics.
The study, which has not yet been published in a medical journal, also revealed that 63% of patients with respiratory infections were prescribed antibiotics during their hospital stay. Lead author Dr. Magrit Jarlsdatter Hovind from Akershus University Hospital and the University of Oslo, Norway, described the overuse of antibiotics as a "huge" problem, contributing to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. The findings will be presented at next month's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen.
A clinical trial has been initiated to determine whether patients admitted to the hospital with common respiratory infections should be treated with antibiotics. Meanwhile, European patient and consumer groups have called on the European Medicines Agency to address shortages of widely used antibiotics, including amoxicillin.