This week I'm on the beautiful island of Kauai for a continuing medical education (CME) conference on Infectious Diseases. UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) is presenting the CME conference and conveniently structured the sessions in the morning so we are all free to enjoy the natural beauty of this lovely island in the afternoon. I'm dedicating this week's posts to updating you on the appropriate usage of antibiotics for various and common illnesses I see in my practice.
Here is something very interesting and concerning that was published in Lancet in 2007. It seems that one use of Azithromycin (3 day course) or Clarithromycin (7 day course) can lead to the development of Azithromycin or Clarithromycin resistant Streptococcus pneumonia for at lease 6 months after the single course of treatment. After 6 months 50% of the Strep bacteria that was isolated was resistant to Azithromycin or Clarithromycin over the use of placebo (20%).
Additionally, in the use of Clarithromycin (common names: Biaxin, Klaricid, Claripen, Claridar and Clacid) there seems to be additional cross resistance to other antibiotic resistance such as to tetracycline.
The take home message is to ensure that you have as healthy an immune system so that you don't end up with upper respiratory infections that will require these common antibiotics. They are commonly recommended for sinusitis, ear infections, bronchitis and throat infections. Check out my previous posts on tips on how to stop a Cold or Flu in its tracks parts one and part two. Also, in the past I've spoken about how to recover from a cold more quickly and how to get rid of your headcold fast. Stay tuned for more tricks and tips on what to do to prevent or recover from future ear, sinus or lung infections. Of course, you should go see your doctor if you are very sick or know that you are immunocompromised or are in a lot of discomfort. Try not to use too many doses of NSAIDS like Tylenol, Advil/Motril, aspirin to decrease fever because it reduces your own body's ability to recover from the infection faster.
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