Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID)
Volume 60 Issue 9 May 1, 2015
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/current

Editorial Commentary: Setting National Targets for Antibiotic Use
Joshua P. Metlay
Author Affiliations
Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
(See the Major Article by Hicks et al on pages 1308–16.)
The recognition that antibiotic use invariably leads to the emergence of antibiotic resistance dates back to the earliest uses of these drugs. However, a series of events over the last few decades called attention to the societal problem of antibiotic overuse and the need for interventions to address it. These events included the release of an Institute of Medicine report on emerging infections, the launching of professional organizations including the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, and the creation of an interagency task force on antimicrobial resistance that linked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US Food and Drug Administration, and National Institutes of Health (along with other agencies) to reduce the threat of emerging resistance and develop a public health action plan [1, 2]. Safeguarding the future availability of antibiotic drugs by restricting their use now has been a consistent theme of these efforts and was highlighted in a recent CDC report summarizing the burdens and threats posed by antibiotic-resistant organisms [3]. Given the length of time we have been fighting the battle against antibiotic overuse, a national update on how we are doing seems long overdue.
In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Hicks and colleagues from the CDC report on population rates of outpatient antibiotic use …

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US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing Variation According to Geography, Patient Population, and Provider Specialty in 2011
Clin Infect Dis. (2015) 60 (9): 1308-1316 doi:10.1093/cid/civ076
Lauri A. Hicks, Monina G. Bartoces, Rebecca M. Roberts, Katie J. Suda, Robert J. Hunkler, Thomas H. Taylor, Jr, and Stephanie J. Schrag
Healthcare providers prescribed 842 prescriptions per 1000 persons in 2011. The most commonly prescribed individual antibiotic agent was azithromycin. Family practitioners prescribed the most antibiotic courses (24%). The prescribing rate was higher in the South than the West.