What is so terrible about this situation is that the worst-case scenario of the effects of the mass doses of antibiotics they ingest is an untreatable bacterium that is immune to the treatments we are aware of. That may not sound so bad until you think about the number of children around the world that could die from this bacterium. It would most definitely be a catastrophic event if a portion of the earth's population at that early of an age were to be erased. It would be a human-induced bubonic plague of the twenty-first century and it is really not that far from becoming a reality.

In a study done in 1992, there were over sixty million different oral antibiotic prescriptions were giving to people under the age o

Most antibiotic prescriptions that are issued each year go to children under the age of six. This is also the age group that is most susceptible to the high-resistance strain of bacteria (Drugs and Biotech). Recently, bacteria that commonly infect children and adults (like streptococcus pneumonia and staph) have become progressively resistant to antibiotics (Napoli). Widespread, indiscriminate use of antibiotics has created highly resistant bacteria. Some children who could normally be treated with a single course of antibiotics have to be treated with two or more courses. Some who could have been previously treated with an oral antibiotic at home now have to be admitted to hospitals and treated with intravenous antibiotics (More Drugs ...).

In response to the arising question that restricting the use of antibiotics increases the risk of a poor outcome or complications, Dr. Roger A.M.J. Damoiseaux of University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a trial in which half the children were given amoxicillin, the standard, first-choice antibiotic (Berger). The 240 Dutch children who participated ranged in age from six to twenty-four months. They were randomly divided to take either 40mg of amoxicillin in three divided doses or a placebo for ten days (Berger). This was a double-blind study in which neither the doctors nor the parents were aware of the distribution of medication. Both groups were giving the acetaminophen/decongestant treatment, and the parents were instructed to keep a ten-day diary of ear and gastrointestinal symptoms, the common adverse effects of amoxicillin (Berger).

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Approximate Word count = 1462
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)