The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a new wave of additional antibiotic treatments. | stock photo
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a new wave of additional antibiotic treatments. | stock photo
Recent studies have shown that an unexpected effect of COVID-19 may be increased resistance to antibiotics resulting from overuse, as the pandemic brings on a new wave of additional antibiotic treatments, according to a report by BioWorld.
Dr. Jamie Oberman, a physician at Frederick Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers, said "bacteria are smart microbes" that are capable of adapting to advances in technology and medicine such as antibiotics, continuously developing mechanisms to become resistant to such medications.
"The more infections you have, the more antibiotics that are prescribed, the more bacterial resistance you have, so we're to the point where the antibiotics no longer work," Oberman told Maryland State Wire. "You're developing what's called bacterial resistance."
Dr. Jamie Oberman
| Frederick Breathe Free
Oberman said that over-the-counter rinses are one method to avoid the excessive use of antibiotics for chronic sinusitis.
"That's where rinsing your nose with NetiMed rinses, NetiPots, those types of things that you've seen on the market, there's science behind them. They're really, truly rinsing out things that you are reacting to in your nose," Oberman explained. "So that nasal hygiene is a big part of the toolkit that we discuss with our patients on a regular basis."
A study that examined the long-term results of balloon dilation, one of the treatments offered at the Frederick Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers, found that the average number of antibiotic courses used by sinus patients was 4.5 in the year before treatment but decreased to 1.6 average courses per year after treatment, according to a study published in the medical journal The Laryngoscope. So balloon sinuplasty -- a minimally invasive, in-office procedure -- is an effective way to reduce antibiotic use in chronic sinusitis patients.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between one-third and one-half of all antibiotic usage in humans is "unnecessary or inappropriate," according to Mayo Clinic.
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