Six Week Acne Treatment With Antibiotics Increase Risks Of Upper Respirator Infections

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan 22, 2008 -
QAR publishes a research about acne antibiotics and upper respiratory infections
Atlanta, Georgia, 11/16/2007 – The department of research writing at QAR reports that according to Medical News Today, “Individuals treated with antibiotics for acne for more than six weeks were more than twice as likely to develop an upper respiratory tract infection within one year as individuals with acne who were not treated with antibiotics, according to an article in the September issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Although there is considerable concern that the overuse of antibiotics will lead to resistant organisms and an increase in infectious illness, there have been few studies on people who have actually been exposed to antibiotics for long periods, according to background information in the article. Patients with acne, for which long-term antibiotic use is standard and appropriate therapy, represent a unique and natural population in which to study the effects of long-term antibiotic use, the authors suggest”.

"In this study, we have shown that the odds of a URTI developing among individuals who use an antibiotic to treat acne is about two times greater compared with those who do not use an antibiotic," the authors conclude. "The true clinical importance of our findings, in which patients and practitioners need to balance the risk of these infections with the benefits that patients with acne receive from this therapy, will require further investigation. However, patients with acne represent an ideal model in which to study the long-term effects of antibiotic therapy, the risks associated with colonization, and the risks of increasing resistance among bacterial pathogens exposed to antibiotics during treatment."