Antibiotics and Children essays

Antibiotics and Children essays A very important issue concerning the children of today is the excess prescribing of antibiotics and the dangers that are being created. Everyday, more and more children are being prescribed any easy solution to a very tough problem. There is a constant push from pharmaceutical companies, parents, and massive marketing companies to try the next antibiotic remedy, but as we look towards the future and the diseases that can be created by this quick fix, we should turn to our attention to alternatives remedies. What is so terrible about this situation is that the worst-case scenario of the effects of the mass doses of antibiotics they ingest is an untreatable bacterium that is immune to the treatments we are aware of. That may not sound so bad until you think about the number of children around the world that could die from this bacterium. It would most definitely be a catastrophic event if a portion of the earths population at that early of an age were to be erased. It would be a human-induced bubonic plague of the twenty- first century and it is really not that far from becoming a reality. In a study done in 1992, there were over sixty million different oral antibiotic prescriptions were giving to people under the age of fifteen years old (Napoli). The extensiveness of antibiotic options coupled with their widespread use in pediatric patients highlight the importance of pharmacists having a thorough familiarity with pediatric antibiotic therapy. Also, problems may arise in treating children under the age of two because of their immature immune system, lack of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for pediatric use of many antibiotics and limited data supporting therapy courses of less than ten days (Napoli). Also, an added complication of the treatment of the patient is the willingness, ability to follow the regimen, and the understanding of the importance of completing the therapy. Before filling the presc...