(AmericanProsperity.com) – According to newly released research, adults who are admitted to the hospital are often misdiagnosed with Pneumonia. These adults are then administered the full course of antibiotics to fight the infection, which may be completely unnecessary.
According to the study, 12% of adults were misdiagnosed with Pneumonia and almost 90% of them were given the full round of antibiotics, which they didn’t need. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that over forty million people are prescribed antibiotics for infections yearly who don’t need them at all or don’t require the full course of antibiotics.
Each year over twenty thousand people die due to antibiotic resistance. The overuse of antibiotics will lead to a resistance where the bacteria becomes strong enough to withstand the medication causing it to be ineffective.
The study looked at various Michigan hospitals and analyzed seventeen thousand adults who were hospitalized. They were admitted to the hospital for routine or general care, but were later diagnosed with Pneumonia. These patients were then treated with the whole course of antibiotics.
However, reviewing the study, those patients were misdiagnosed as participants had fewer than two symptoms and their chest X-ray results were negative for infection.
There has been an increase in how many people are misdiagnosed and this is a common mix-up in hospitals. Experts say that a chest X-ray is the best way to ensure that a patient does or doesn’t have Pneumonia, since some of the other symptoms can overlap with different conditions.
“Inappropriate diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia may have implications, such as delays in understanding the actual problem or adverse effects related to antibiotic treatment,” said lead researcher Gupta.
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