Government health insurance fprograms may be spending millions of dollars in futile traetments for the common cold.
Reaseachers at the University of Kentucky in Lexington found their state's Medicaid program spends $1.62 million treating colds with the antibiotics, which don't work because colds and other upper respiratory tract infections are caused by viruses, not bacteria. Inappropriate antibiotics accounted for 23 percent of the total cost of outpatient care.
The unneccessary antibiotcs may actually be harmful, as the overuse of the drugs is thought to contribute to bacteria's growing anibiotic resistance, the researchers said.
The finding was not all that surprising, they write in the current issue of Archice of Family Medicine. This and other studies have found that more that half of all cold sufferers get prescriptions for antibiotics.