Infectious disease specialists debate whether it's better to give the strongest antibiotics all at once for drug-resistant germs or save the most innovative medicines for use as a last resort.
A study from Niger reveals a dramatic drop in mortality among children given a twice-yearly dose of azithromycin. Yet concern remains about the potential impact on antibiotic resistance.
Civica Rx has plans to become an alternative source of generic drugs at reasonable prices for hospitals. The company's first medicines will be the antibiotics vancomycin and daptomycin.
Most beef cattle receive antibiotics in their feed to prevent liver abscesses while eating a high-energy diet. There's growing pressure on feedlots to stop this — and some have. But it's costly.
With the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists are exploring nature to find new disease-fighting compounds. They're finding them in surprising new places: the microbiomes of insects.
The latest NPR-IBM Watson Health Poll finds that medical visits for symptoms of infections are common and that many people get an antibiotic under those circumstances. But a talk is in order first.
People with colds and related infections give physicians higher ratings when they give them a prescription for antibiotics. Could that lead doctors to overprescribe?
Researchers administered doses of azithromycin to 190,238 children in sub-Saharan Africa. The death rate dropped, but fear of antibiotic resistance looms.
People who live in the Aloha State are less likely to use opioid painkillers or be prescribed antibiotics than are mainland dwellers. Healthy lifestyles have a lot to do with that.
Scientists have created an experimental device that putters around inside the stomach, neutralizing acid and then delivering antibiotics. The goal is to help the antibiotics work better.
Many meat producers say they are reducing their use of antibiotics. Yet the latest government statistics show that sales of these drugs for farm use continue to grow.
Cutting by half the time that children are given antibiotics for ear infections didn't do as good a job, a study finds. And it didn't reduce antibiotic resistance, which was a key goal.
The giant poultry producer says that it is now raising all of its chickens without routine antibiotics. Only those flocks that get sick, about 5 percent of all birds, will be treated.
We know that bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, but we've never seen it happen. An MIT scientist figured out how to show bacteria surviving antibiotics and invading a giant petri dish.
Many of the most powerful antibiotics have lost their punch. Some Stanford students think they've found a different way to attack bacteria that the germs can't overcome.
Syphilis cases are on the rise. The bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease is becoming resistant to some antibiotics. But somehow, penicillin has remained the best weapon against it.
The germs caused a urinary tract infection in a Pennsylvania woman that was difficult to treat. The bacteria were resistant to the drug often used as the last-ditch treatment, but another one worked.
Most antibiotics can't tell the difference between good and bad bacteria. That means medicines can kill helpful bacteria in your gut while they're obliterating the ones making you sick.
The medication is the only one available to prevent an infected pregnant woman from passing the disease to a fetus. Pfizer says the shortage should be over in July.
Researchers are trying to figure out whether probiotics — the stuff we like to eat in yogurt to keep our guts healthy — could also help pigs, cows and chickens thrive.
