CHICAGO, March 16 (Xinhua) -- When you get an antibiotic-resistant infection, seeing an infectious-disease doctor can save your life, a study of the Washington University in St. Louis shows.
The study looked at 4,214 patients from a St. Louis hospital who had one of five types of resistant infections, the most common of which was Staphylococcus aureus.
Nearly one-fifth died or were discharged to hospice within 30 days of diagnosis; 44 percent died within a year. But those who had an infectious-disease doctor involved in their care were more likely to recover.
While a non-specialist can write you a prescription to try to treat an infection you pick up in the hospital, an infectious-disease doctor can help you launch a more comprehensive treatment plan: using multiple antibiotics in combination when needed, draining abscesses where infections can hide, removing infected central lines, checking for pernicious complications such as endocarditis, and monitoring you for potential side effects to potent antibiotics.
When it comes to infections that resist initial treatment, that kind of comprehensive approach can make a difference.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two million people in U.S. are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, causing at least 23,000 deaths each year.
The study is published on Friday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
