[Short or long course antibiotics. Is there a debate on the duration of treatment?].
FROM EMPIRIC DATA: The duration of antibiotic treatments in most cases is comprised between 7 and 14 days. However, although a duration is indicated on prescribing an antibiotic, the true duration, for a precise patient, can vary depending on the organ infected, the causal agent, the time passed since the first symptoms and the onset of treatment, eventual complications and notably the presence of suppuration or deep bacterial centers, not necessarily accessible to the antibiotic, its localization, the progress during treatment and the quality of the treatment selected. NORMAL, SHORT OR LONG TREATMENT CYCLES: For common infections, the normal treatment cycles indicated are extracted from the literature. Short (or shortened) cycles have been and are the subject of studies predominantly on upper respiratory and lower urinary tracts infections. When indisputable studies, with wide experience, have validated short treatment cycles, explicit marketing authorizations have been issued. An exhaustive list exists. There are also situations in which long or even very long treatment cycles are required. DAY ZERO: The debate on the shortening of treatment cycles must not serve as an alibi to the consensus that is required in France, which is that the prescription of antibiotics in affections that do not require them must cease: 10 to 20 million treatments are prescribed every year for no good reason. The list of infections targeted is clearly established by the official guidelines of the AFSSAPS (French Medicines Agency). For such infections, the aim is not to shorten the duration of the antibiotic, but not to prescribe one.
Trémolières
François
F
Service de médecine interne et des maladies infectieuses Centre hospitalier François Quesnay 78200 Mantes-la-Jolie, ftremo@noos.fr
D000208:Acute Disease; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000188:drug therapy; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000188:drug therapy; D012874:Skin Diseases, Infectious / Q000188:drug therapy; D013997:Time Factors; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000188:drug therapy
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents