MCV/Q, Medical College of Virginia Quarterly
Orginal Publication Date
1978
Journal Title
MCV/Q, Medical College of Virginia Quarterly
Volume
14
Issue
2
First Page
69
Last Page
75
Abstract
It was stated years ago that physicians pour medicines about which they know little, for diseases about which they know less, into human beings about whom they know nothing. Although as a prophet this wag may have overstated the case as it concerns the therapy of urinary tract infections (UTI), the character of contemporary infectious diseases is, in part, due to the use and abuse of anti-infective agents. One has only to look at the rising incidence of gram-negative bacteremia and the emergence of multiple antibiotic-resistant organisms over the past several decades to appreciate the impact physicians have made with these agents. Despite the drawbacks, the benefits resulting from the use of antibiotics far outweigh the deleterious effects, a fact perhaps realized most vividly by physicians whose careers reach back to the pre-chemotherapeutic era. The enthusiasm for antibiotics makes them one of the most prescribed groups of drugs in the United States, accounting for 15% to 20% of all new and refill prescriptions. Undoubtedly many of the prescriptions are used to treat persons with UTIs, in light of the fact that UTIs are said to rank second only to upper respiratory infections as the most common infections in the western hemisphere.
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