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fhea.com Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc., April 2015
Antibiotic Shortages Putting Patients
at Risk
Shortages of antibiotics, including those used for
drug-resistant infections, may be putting patients at
risk, according to a new study published in Clinical
Infectious Diseases online April 23, 2015. The study
suggests that if these shortages are not addressed,
there will be big impacts on health care. Further-
more, because drug companies are not required to
report shortages, hospitals and practitioners are not
able to plan ahead for shortages and are caught off
guard.
There were shortages of 148 antibiotics between
2001 and 2013, and the shortage problem began to
get worse in 2007, the study said. Lead researcher
Larissa May, MD, associate professor of emergency
medicine at George Washington University in Wash-
ington, DC, said many of the drug shortages were
among the only drug used to
treat particular conditions,
drugs used to treat antibiotic-
resistant bacteria, and drugs
used to treat children. Many of
the shortages were of broad-
spectrum antibiotics, injecta-
bles for which there were no
alternative manufacturers.
During the study period, there were multiple
shortages of 32 antibiotics, which lasted an average
of 6 months. At the end of the study period, 26 an-
tibiotics were still in short supply or unavailable.
Nearly half the shortages were for antibiotics
needed to treat severe infections, including Clostridi-
um difficile, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
(CRE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
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Continued on page 20
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