It is winter and a lot of people are sick. Around here, and around the
country, there are two big kinds of sick – one is mainly gastrointestinal
disease with vomiting and diarrhea as the main symptoms, and the other upper
respiratory infections with congestion, cough, and sometimes shortness of
breath as the main symptoms. The first (GI) are mostly caused by norovirus in adults and adolescents and
rotavirus in small children (and, recent reported, the elderly). The
respiratory version is frequently influenza, or other viruses. Viruses. Not bacteria, which can be treated
with antibiotics. Viruses do not respond to antibiotics.
This is not to say that they cannot make you very sick. They can, and do.
Especially in the old and very young and immunocompromised, influenza virus can
lead to major bacterial complications and death; the swine flu outbreak of 1918
killed more people than WW I. When there are major influenza epidemics, there
is a big excess of deaths. This is a really good reason to get the flu shot.
Everyone who does not have a firm contraindication (e.g., allergy to eggs, a
previous episode of Guillain-Barre syndrome) should receive the vaccine. People
should expect that their health care providers have received the vaccine. It is
not 100% effective, but it is very effective, and helps make the disease milder
even if you contract it, and it decreases transmission.
It is not a reason to get antibiotics for a viral upper respiratory
infection or bronchitis. Pneumonia, yes (even though a fairly large percent of
pneumonias are viral, it is hard to tell); pneumonia as a complication of
influenza, particularly in elderly or immunocompromised people with other
chronic diseases (heart, lung, kidney, diabetes, cancer) is very serious. But these people, who
have or are likely to have bacterial pneumonia and need antibiotics, represent
a tiny fraction of the people treated with antibiotics for viral bronchitis
(not to mention even less severe viral upper respiratory infections such as
sinusitis, non-strep pharyngitis, and otitis). Bronchitis is no fun. It can
make you feel miserable, create chest pain when you cough, and generally make
you really sick. It can also last a really long time – 4-6 weeks of coughing is
typical. But viruses don’t respond to antibiotics, even if you’ve been sick for
a week or a month.
A recent study published
on-line-before-print in JAMA-Internal
Medicine by Gonzales and colleagues[1] looked at the
use of decision support by either paper algorithms or computer systems in
reducing the use of antibiotics for acute bronchitis in a very large
multi-practice group in rural Pennsylvania (Geisinger Health System). They
found basically two things: both the paper and computer assisted decision
support tools reduced the rate of antibiotic prescribing about equally and both
did so significantly more than in “control” practices that got neither.
Unfortunately, the rate dropped from about 80% of to about 68%; that is, a
large majority of those presenting with acute bronchitis received antibiotic
prescriptions even after the intervention.
In a “Commentary” in the same issue, “Antibiotic Prescribing for Acute Respiratory Infections—Success
That’s Way Off the Mark”[2] , Jeffrey Linder
notes that the problem with the study is that the “success” was very limited;
that is, it moved the inappropriate use of antibiotics down, but it was still
many times too high. His comparison is to the use of aspirin after heart attack,
and how improving the rate from 30% to 40% would have been inadequate; luckily
we are now at 94-99%. Another metaphor, more graphic, would be if we were happy
that, over 10 years, the number of people killed by the average mass murderer
dropped from 15 to 12!
“Since 2005," Linder notes,"a Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measure for patients aged 18 to 64 years states that the antibiotic prescribing rate for acute bronchitis should be zero. Despite the evidence, meta-analyses, and performance measures, antibiotic prescribing for acute bronchitis in the United States remains at more than 70%.” He is critical of the Gonzales study because, even after its “statistically significant” intervention, “The antibiotic prescribing rate—an event that should never happen for these patients—in ‘successful’ intervention practices was still more than 60%. For individual clinicians…we need to redefine success. Success is not reducing the antibiotic prescribing rate by 10%; success is reducing the antibiotic prescribing rate to 10%.”
“Since 2005," Linder notes,"a Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measure for patients aged 18 to 64 years states that the antibiotic prescribing rate for acute bronchitis should be zero. Despite the evidence, meta-analyses, and performance measures, antibiotic prescribing for acute bronchitis in the United States remains at more than 70%.” He is critical of the Gonzales study because, even after its “statistically significant” intervention, “The antibiotic prescribing rate—an event that should never happen for these patients—in ‘successful’ intervention practices was still more than 60%. For individual clinicians…we need to redefine success. Success is not reducing the antibiotic prescribing rate by 10%; success is reducing the antibiotic prescribing rate to 10%.”
Or less. Many people will say “I got antibiotics and I felt better in a couple of days”. Almost all of these people would have gotten better anyway. There are some studies that show, in large populations, taking antibiotics can shorten symptoms by about a half-day. (This is probably because of some minor bacterial co-infection in some folks, especially those with chronic lung disease). But not by a week, or 2 or 3. Length of time of symptoms is not an indication for antibiotics for a viral illness. And that half day? Linder points out that “5% to 25% of patients who will have an adverse reaction. Worse, at least 1 in 1000 patients who take an antibiotic will wind up in the emergency department with a serious adverse drug event.” This is, to put it mildly, not good.
Let’s review this: acute bronchitis, much less other “colds”, are viral
and viral infections do not benefit in any way from treatment with antibiotics.
They can, however, last a long time, and make you miserable. These symptoms are
still not indications for antibiotics. The algorithm used by the Geisinger
group, and posted on the walls of their examination rooms, is attached. There
are some people, particularly the old, immunocompromised, and those with
chronic bronchitis (mostly long-time smokers) who can develop pneumonia, which
should be treated with antibiotics. They do not have acute bronchitis.
Doctors and other health professionals should know this, and most of them
do. Sadly, however, they not only frequently prescribe antibiotics for viral
illnesses because their patients “want them”, but also take them themselves for
the same non-indications. Doctors, nurses, and others are among the greatest
“abusers” of antibiotics (by which I mean taking them when they are not
needed). Amazingly, many of these same health care providers are those who do
not get the influenza vaccine, which they should be getting! The justification
of “I need to stay healthy, and can’t miss work, because I need to care for my
patients and don’t want to transmit illness to them” is wrong on 3 counts: 1)
Taking antibiotics for a virus won’t make you less sick or shorten the course
of your illness, 2) Taking antibiotics won’t prevent you from transmitting a
viral illness, and 3) Taking antibiotics for a viral illness increases the risk
of superinfections (e.g., yeast vaginitis), drug reactions, and the development
bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics, which you can spread to your
patients. By the way, you also don’t need antibiotics for norovirus or other
viral (or, indeed many forms of bacterial) gastroenteritis.
This Batman-and-Robin cartoon illustrates the frustration that many of us
feel. Obviously, we cannot even think about literally or figuratively treating
our patients that way, but I think one of the interesting parallels is that the
person asking Batman for antibiotics is not a “regular person” but Robin, a
kind of Batman-in-training, and thus Batman’s frustration mirrors that many of
us feel when our own trainees (students and residents) inappropriately use
antibiotics for themselves.
Linder says “We should address
patients’ symptoms, but for antibiotics we need to tell our patients that ‘this
medicine is more likely to hurt you than to help you.’” Those of us who are
sick and not health care providers need to understand that; those of us who are health care providers have an even greater responsibility.
[1] Gonzales
R, et al., A Cluster Randomized Trial
of Decision Support Strategies for Reducing Antibiotic Use in Acute Bronchitis,
JAMA-Internal Medicine Published
online January 14, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1589
[2]
Linder, J, “Antibiotic Prescribing for
Acute Respiratory Infections—Success That’s Way Off the Mark” JAMA-Internal Medicine Published online
January 14, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1984
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