Survey: Overwhelming Majority Of U.S. Doctors Seeing Patients With Drug-Resistant Illnesses

While the pharmaceuticals industry and some livestock farmers and veterinarians still contend that there isn’t yet definitive proof that the overuse of antibiotics is leading to the development and spread of drug-resistant bacteria, a new survey of American doctors found that there is nearly universal concern among doctors about this issue, and that many physicians have treated patients with drug-resistant infections in just the last year.

The report [PDF] from our colleagues at Consumers Union, along with groups like the National Resource Defense Council, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and the National Physicians Alliance, looks at the results of a survey of 500 internal medicine and family practice physicians in the U.S.

Some 97% of doctors surveyed are at least fairly concerned about the growing problem of antibiotic resistant infections, with 59% of all respondents saying they were “extremely” concerned.

And when you look at how many of these physicians have treated patients with drug-resistant infections, it’s no surprise why there is such widespread concern.

According to the survey, 85% of these doctors have treated at least one patient in the last year with a bacterial infection that was resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Of those physicians, 35% have had one of these patients die or suffer significant complications as a result of these drug-resistant bugs.

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