Lunch And Learn With Dr. Berry

You know that I promote my love for Public Health whenever I get the chance and quite often find a way to point out how important it is in everyday medicine. Well, this is one of those times again with the subject of antibiotics. There isn't a shift that goes by that I have to prescribe someone an antibiotic for their illness but because of that we are beginning to run into a huge public health issue where we no longer have an arsenal of antibiotics to fight these common diseases.   What has been the biggest reason? Physicians overprescribing antibiotics just to keep the patient happy. I can't tell you how many times someone has come in my office in order to get antibiotics for something that is clearly viral and leaves upset because I won't prescribe it. For many the placebo of taking a medication is all they want regardless if it will help or not.   We know the cost of health care for patients dealing with resistant bugs is much more than those fighting resistant bugs and now its gotten to the point where i