Norway's solution to infections includes fewer drugs
Infection Control Weekly Monitor, January 6, 2010
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Health experts worldwide have urged doctors to rely less on antibiotics in order to reduce the growth of antibiotic resistant superbugs, such as MRSA.
By now some organisms have become so resistant experts are concerned that there will be nothing left to fight them. But Norway is one of the only countries that adopted an aggressive program that severely cuts back on the use of antibiotics, which has made it the most infection-free country in the world.
Now a number of studies have said Norway’s model can be replicated in other countries, potentially eliminating 19,000 unnecessary infection-related deaths in the United States, according to CBS News.
The shelves of hospital pharmacies in Norway are lined not with the latest and greatest antibiotics, but with medicines considered obsolete in many other countries. These medicines are effective in Norway because drug-resistance is much lower.
“We don't throw antibiotics at every person with a fever,” says Dr. John Birger Haug, the infectious disease specialists at Aker University Hospital. “We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.”
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