Most children with conjunctivitis (pinkeye) don't need antibiotics

[HuckleB]

Most children with infective conjunctivitis (pinkeye) do not need treatment with an antibiotic

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=11249

"One in eight school children have an episode of conjunctivitis every year. This amounts to more than 1 million episodes in the UK and more than 5 million in the USA. Diagnosis of the condition is usually straight forward but doctors find difficulty in differentiating a viral cause from a bacterial cause. Standard practice is to prescribe antibiotic eye drops, although evidence to support this decision is scarce. Antibiotic resistance is also a growing global problem, state the authors.

Peter Rose (University of Oxford, UK) and colleagues did a randomized trial to investigate the effectiveness of an antibiotic treatment when compared with a placebo. Over 300 children were recruited onto the study from 12 medical practices in Oxfordshire UK, from 2001 to 2004. Half were assigned to chloramphenicol eye drops-the most commonly used antibiotic for conjunctivitis in the UK-and half to placebo eye drops. The investigators found no significant difference in the cure rate after 7 days. 86% of the children were clinically cured in the antibiotic group compared with 83% in the placebo group. Even in children who had a bacterial infection, the clinical cure rate did not differ significantly between the antibiotic (85%) and the placebo groups (80%). The researchers suggest parents should be encouraged to treat children themselves without medical consultation, unless their child develops unusual symptoms or the symptoms persist for more than a week.

..."


Hmm. The immune system does its job. I'll be danged.

[tecelote]

1. Drugs Rule!

Newsweek just put out an entire issue on "Health" that is really a guide to what drugs you need.

Look at all of the media spots on drugs.

America is being drugged.

[havocmom]

2. Yeah, and if pot were harder to grow and use, if it needed some processing

beyond what one can do in the garden & kitchen, we would be able to legally use it too. But, alas, Big Pharm can't put a meter on the stuff, so tough scoobies to all those cancer victims and those with chronic pain which won't respond to anything else!

[Warpy]

3. Drugs for self limiting infections like pinkeye

are actually counterproductive since they prevent the immune system from doing its job. Kids are growing up with weakened immune systems and little natural immunity to diseases they should have developed an immunity to in early childhood.

Running to the doctor for every case of pinkeye or every ear infection is hurting the kids. The former should be treated with warm soaks in the morning, the latter with pain meds and time.

[Mistress Quickly]

4. And hand washing

but NOT with anti-bacterial soaps. Regular soap (I like Ivory) water, the hotter the better.

My mother-in-law always wants me to take the kids to the doctor, even offers to pay. Drives me up the wall.

I heartily agree that kids needs exposure to the germs of life. I hate the fact that they are now required to have a chicken pox immunization for school. WTH? No idea how long it works, and CP is worse as an adult in most cases. And, with all the new info cming out about immunizations, I hate that we now have to give them more. The CP immunization is for parents who don't "have time" to tend to a sick child, a convenience immunization.

Sorry, all this is a sticky point with me. My husband's mother was a neat freak, and he was sick all the time when we first got married. After living with me for a few years, he's almost never sick. I'm not messy or gross, but I don't bleach everything in sight. Life's too short to worry about every little speck of dirt.

[Heddi]

5. Hot water is not necessarily better

Hot water has the tendency to dry out your hands. When you use hot hot hot water, your hands get dried out, cracks & fissures are formed, which can lead to increased risk of infections and such things as contact dermatitis.

So actually you can spread MORE bacteria if you wash your hands in 'hotter the better' water because you'll have more skin openings for bacteria to hide & multiply in.

Use soap, warmer-than-warm tapwater, and dry thoroughly. Leaving hands partially wet also increases the number of bacteria that can live on your hands, and can also lead to contact dermatitis.

Interestingly enough, if you have contact dermatitis, your risk of spreading bacteria is higher because your hands are raw and red, so you don't wash your hands as often as you should because it's so painful. Of course, most likely you GOT the contact dermatitis from washing your hands in too hot of water (to prevent spreading germs)--it's like this catch 22.

Also, be wary of alcohol-based hand sanitizers. THey too can dry out the hands causing the same problems as too hot of water.

If the water is so hot that it scalds, then it's too hot to be washing your hands under.