Antibiotic Over Use-- How Does Your State Rate???

             

Antibiotics Prescribing Rates by State across the U.S. (2011/2012):

The scale is divided into 5 levels: Level 5 is the "Highest" rate and Level 1 is the "Lowest" rate

• Level 5 includes: Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia
• Level 4 includes: Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Ohio
• Level 3 includes: Connecticut , Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas
• Level 2 includes: Arizona, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming
• Level 1 includes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington

Prescribing data from july 2011 through June 2012; population data from 2011

Source: IMS Health

Many times it’s hard to tell if a disease is caused by a virus or a bacteria. If an antibiotic is used on a viral disease it does nothing to cure the patient.The CDC suggest that doctors wait and make sure that what their treating is a bacterial disease. Using an antibiotic runs the risks of side effects such as heart and breathing problems. My father had a side effect to an antibiotic and nearly died.

The overuse of antibiotics also causes drug resistance in bacteria. The CDC stated that antibiotics will become useless in the future. So it is important that antibiotics are not overused