Stick With Simple Antibiotics for Pneumonia, Australian Researcher Advises

Australian hospitals should avoid prescribing expensive broad-spectrum antibiotics for pneumonia to avoid the development of more drug-resistant superbugs, according to a University of Melbourne study.

The study, by PhD researcher and Austin Health Infectious Diseases consultant, Dr. Patrick Charles, shows that only 5 percent of people admitted to the hospital with community-acquired pneumonia had infections caused by organisms that could not be successfully treated with penicillin combined with an "atypical" antibiotic such as doxycycline or erythromycin.

In the world's largest study of its kind, Charles studied almost 900 people admitted to six Australian hospitals over 28 months from 2004 to 2006. Charles' research analyzed samples of blood, urine, sputum and viral swabs of the nose and throat taken from 885 patients at the Austin, Alfred, Monash and West Gippsland hospitals in Victoria, the Royal Perth Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane.