This week, health officials in Los Angeles were met with an outbreak of a deadly bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, which has infected a least seven patients, two of whom have died, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Dr. Mark Ebell, professor of epidemiology, commented in a recent piece by the International Business Times, on how the overprescription of antibiotics continues to play in the persistence of antibiotic resistant super bacteria.

A quote from Dr. Ebell in the piece:

I think the perception among physicians is, ‘boy, what if I don’t prescribe an antibiotic and they end up getting pneumonia and then suing me?’” said Dr. Mark Ebell, a family physician and professor of epidemiology at University of Georgia College of Public Health in Athens. “Patients have been trained to believe that ‘acute’ means serious or that an infection is something they need an antibiotic for,” even if the infection is viral and therefore won’t respond to antibiotics.

Read the entire article at the International Business Times.

Posted February 20, 2015.