Page 1 of 1: Antibiotics reduce risk of dying from COPD attack by 77 ...

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SUMMARY: People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often experience short term worsening and aggravation of their symptoms. To date, there has been conflicting evidence as to whether these exacerbations should be treated with antibiotic therapy. A new systematic review to be published in The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2006 now concludes that they should be used. The researchers found that antibiotics reduce the risk of dying from the attack by 77%, decreases the risk of treatment failure by 53% and decrease the risk of developing AIPGE sputum by 44%. There is, however, a small increase in the risk of developing diarrhoea. Many people question whether antibiotics should be used to combat exacerbations of COPD. The uncertainty stems from the growing desire to use antibiotics only when necessary, combined with the recognition that up to one third of exacerbations of COPD have are not caused by infections, and some others are due to viral infections.

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