Kentucky is No. 1 state in overuse of antibiotics, a problem that poses wide dangers to the drugs' effectiveness

In 2010 the average number of dispensed outpatient antibiotic
prescriptions was 801 per 1,000 Americans. In Kentucky it was
1,197. The darker the state, the higher the rate. (CDC map)

Americans, especially Kentuckians, are taking too many antibiotics and that is contributing to the decline in the drugs' effectiveness, says a study by a group associated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found that, in 2010, the five states with the highest antibiotic use were Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Such misuse is already showing up, reports USA Today, as lab reports show urinary tract infections were 30 percent more likely to resist antibiotic treatment in 2010 than in 1999.

Dr. Robert Salley, executive director of cardiovascular services for KentuckyOne Health in the Lexington market, told Cheryl Truman of the Lexington Herald-Leader that the overuse of antibiotics might reflect the state's problem with prescription pain pills. Many Kentuckians are used to "that culture of availability, that culture of not making appropriate use of the physician-patient relationship," he said. Experts have also noted that states that have lower rates of antibiotic use have spent money and time educating their residents about the dangers of overuse. Kentucky has not done that. (Read more)

Meanwhile, the Pew Health Group has released a study showing that 87 percent of Americans have a basic understanding of what antibiotics do, but many did not understand that antibiotic resistance was a major health issue and will only become more problematic in the future. Forty-one percent of Americans said they have never heard of the issue. For more information on that study, go here.

Use of pacifiers could lead to very sick babies, study finds

Oklahoma State University researchers report that they have found a wide range of disease-causing bacteria, fungus and mold on pacifiers that young children had been using.

In research presented at the American Society for Clinical Pathology, scientists have shown that pacifiers can also grow a slimy coating of bacterial film that alters the normal bacteria in a baby or toddler's mouth, increasing the likelihood of colic and ear infections. It gets worse, according to study author Tom Glass, a professor of forensic science, pathology and dental medicine: The same types of bacteria found on a common pacifier have been linked to cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases.

HealthDay reporters Barbara Bronson Gray writes that Glass said the problems associated with pacificers are also applicable to any removable orthodontic appliance like retainers, mouth guards and dentures. Glass said his researchers were particular concerned about their findings when they discovered that "many of the bacteria growing from the used pacifiers were resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as penicillin and methicillin. The development of such resistance to certain antibiotics does not cause the organism to be more infectious than other strains that have no antibiotic resistance, but it can make the infection more difficult to treat." Glass told Gray that he does not recommend that pacifier use. use. "After doing the study, I say why take a risk?" (Read more)

Kentucky second highest in antibiotic consumption in U.S.

The next time you ask your doctor for an antibiotic, or if he or she offers to give you one, think again. It might do your health no good, but could be bad for public health.

"Every time an antibiotic is used ... future effectiveness of that drug is diminished," but Kentuckians take antibiotics at the second highest rate in the country, with 1,205 prescriptions per 1,000 people, says a study by the Centers for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy. Only West Virginia had a higher rate, 1,214 per 1,000. 

Studies show 1 million antibiotics are prescribed unnecessarily every year. "Though antibiotics offer no benefits for colds and other viral infections, many people, including doctors, continue to view these drugs as a quick fix," said a press release by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which helped fund the study.

The problem with the overuse of antibiotics is that bacterial infections become resistant to them. To illustrate the issue, CDDEP says, "High-level penicillin resistance in Streptococcus pneumonia in the United States has experienced a thousand-fold increase in the last 20 years," rising from 0.02 percent in 1987 to more than 20 percent in 2004. The prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — known more commonly as staph — increased from about 2 percent in 1974 to 50 percent in many U.S. hospitals in 2004.

"The problem of resistance is an evolutionary game played between humans and microbes: we try to stay ahead by creating new antibiotics, and microbes develop resistance to our drugs," CDDEP reports. "Unfortunately for us, microbes evolve resistance to antibiotics faster than we can create new drugs, meaning that, in recent years, bacteria have been winning this 'arms race.'"

Though there is no cure to resistance, managing the levels at which people become resistant is possible through judicious prescribing, vaccination, hospital infection control, treatment strategies and new antibiotics. (Read more)