It is Antibiotic Awareness week! It is a great time to renew our understandings and efforts regarding appropriate use of antibiotics, as inappropriate usage can lead to unnecessary resistance and adverse effects. For 2025, the CDC’s theme is “Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance Takes All of Us”.
There are two easy ways we as pharmacists can help improve antibiotic usage for our youngest patients.
- ️The first is to recommend/provide immunizations to help prevent the children from getting significant illnesses.
- Recommend/provide routine and seasonal childhood immunizations.
- In the fall, provide additional education to parents regarding seasonal immunizations that are appropriate for the infant/child’s age (e.g., RSV mab, influenza vaccine, COVID-vaccine)
- Educate parents about what infections are most likely caused by viruses versus bacteria. When the kids are sick, it is good to explain to the parents that the best care for respiratory viruses (other than flu and COVID-19) is supportive management. The CDC has a nice summary here. This often includes hydration and targeted symptom management with things such as antipyretics, honey (if > 12 months), and nasal saline. It is important to educate parents that antibiotics will not help treat viral infections. Explaining that by not using the antibiotics when they will not help, they will help save the antibiotics for the conditions when they are needed (e.g., group A streptococcal pharyngitis, otitis media in some cases).
As mentioned above, Flu and COVID-19 are two viral conditions that have specific treatments. These treatments are reserved for those with severe disease or at high risk for severe disease. For flu this includes all children who are less than 2-5 years old with oseltamivir. While COVID-19 treatment recommendations are provided by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
For more resources Go Purple and visit the USAAW Resources: https://www.cdc.gov/antimicrobial-resistance/communication-resources/usaaw.html