INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Researchers report that U.S. hospitals that follow national guidelines on controlling antibiotic use have lower rates of antibiotic resistance.
Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute Inc. and the Richard Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical Center looked at measures to prevent development of antibiotic resistance as well as ways to stop its spread.
The researchers reported that if hospitals implemented specific measures to control the use of antibiotics they were more likely to have succeeded in controlling antibiotic resistance, according to the study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
"We saw in this study, as in other work we have done, that antibiotic resistance is increasing rapidly," said study leader Dr. Bradley N. Doebbeling of the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine. "This increase is seen in all types of hospitals across the country -- large and small, teaching and non-teaching, VA and non-VA."
