Daily HealthBeat Tip

Wait and see

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Middle ear infections hurt kids, so parents want kids to get antibiotics for the earache.

But most kids get better even without an antibiotic. And spreading around unnecessary antibiotics raises the odds that germs will evolve to resist the drugs – making the drugs less effective.

So researchers propose the "wait and see prescription." If the child doesn’t get better in two days without antibiotics, the prescription could be filled.

David Spiro of Oregon Health and Science University tried it while at Yale. His study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Spiro says wait-and-see kids got well like kids who got prescriptions right away.

His conclusion:

"Parents should be empowered to make a decision in 48 hours whether to fill or not fill an antibiotic prescription." (seven seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October 23, 2006

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