A US study suggests that most people prescribed antibiotics for sinus infections are on treatment courses of 10 days or longer even though infectious disease doctors recommend five to seven days for uncomplicated cases.
Researchers examined data from a sample representing an estimated 3.7 million adults treated for sinusitis and prescribed antibiotics in 2016. Overall, 70 percent of antibiotics prescribed were for 10 days or longer, the study found.
Senior study author Dr. Katherine Fleming-Dutra said: “Any time antibiotics are used, they can cause side effects and lead to antibiotic resistance."
Fleming-Dutra is the deputy director of the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The senior study author told Reuters Health by email: “This is why it is so important to only use antibiotics when they are needed and to use the right antibiotic for the minimum effective duration.”
Common side effects of antibiotics can include rash, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea and yeast infections, she noted. More serious side effects may include life-threatening allergic reactions and Clostridium difficile infection.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them and can make infections harder to treat.
According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), when antibiotics are prescribed for sinus infections, only five to seven days of therapy are needed for uncomplicated cases, when patients start to recover within a few days of starting treatment and if they don’t have signs that the infection has spread beyond the sinuses.
Prior to 2012, the IDSA recommended 10 to 14 days of antibiotics for sinus infections in adults.
Dr. Sharon Meropol, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, who wasn’t involved in the study, said it’s also possible that in some cases, doctors prescribed antibiotics for 10 days or longer and instructed patients to stop after five to seven days unless they were still experiencing symptoms.
