🔄FROM THE ARCHIVE Antibiotic resistance is a threat that’s lurking in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.
Antibiotic resistance is too often labeled a plague for tomorrow. It’s a pressing problem; at least, until a more pressing problem comes along to overshadow it. But experts say we’re already seeing the consequences of prescribing antibiotics to patients who don’t need them.
For patients already seriously ill with COVID-19, the outcome can be devastating. Valerie Vaughn, a hospitalist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, saw the unfortunate convergence of COVID-19 and antibiotic resistance firsthand in an intensive care unit earlier in the pandemic.Vaughn says a patient was given antibiotics upon arriving at the hospital, likely because doctors weren’t sure if he had COVID-19 or a bacterial respiratory infection.
Another culprit behind antibiotic overprescription is more subtle. On the surface, Vaughn says, COVID-19 pneumonia looks a lot like bacterial pneumonia. But a closer inspection reveals that COVID-19 pneumonia patients have a dry cough with a low white blood cell count. By contrast, bacterial pneumonia patients usually have a productive cough and an elevated white blood cell count. Still, doctors rushing to save a seriously sick patient may get the two pneumonias confused.
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