"Antibacterial medicine" did not work for cold - half of the people made mistakes

Recently the NHK News on line reported that following:

かぜに「抗菌薬」は効きません 半数が誤認

2018年11月11日 4時54分

かぜで医療機関を受診した際、本来は効果がない抗生物質などの抗菌薬を処方してほしいと考える人は30％余りいるという調査結果がまとまりました。

抗菌薬の不適切な使用は薬が効かない「耐性菌」を増やすことにつながり、専門家は「正しい知識を普及していく必要がある」と話しています。

抗菌薬は、細菌には効果がある一方で、かぜやインフルエンザなど、ウイルスが原因の病気には効かないことが分かっていますが、かぜに処方されるケースがあり、薬が効かない耐性菌を増やすことにつながっていると指摘されています。

国立国際医療研究センター病院は、インターネットを利用して全国の10代から60代までの一般の男女721人に対して、抗菌薬に対するアンケート調査を行いました。

その結果、「抗菌薬がどのような病気に有用か」という質問に対して、「かぜ」と答えた人が49.9％、「インフルエンザ」と答えた人は49.2％と、ほぼ半数の人が誤って認識していることが分かりました。また、「かぜで受診した時に処方してほしい薬」として、30.1％の人が「抗菌薬」と答えました。

調査を行った国立国際医療研究センター病院の具芳明医師は「患者が強く希望すると医師も処方せざるをえない場合があり、一般の人にも正しい知識を普及していく必要がある」と話しています。

Translation

About visiting a medical agency due to suffering a cold, a survey result gathered showed that antibacterial medicine which was in fact ineffective for that had been thought about by 30% of the people and wanted it to be prescribed.

Regarding the situation that, due to improper use of antibacterial medicine, medicine was not effective and led to an increase in "resistant bacteria", a specialist said that "it is necessary to spread the correct knowledge".

While it was known that antibacterial medicine was only effective in bacteria and was not effective against virus sickness such as cold and flu, still there were cases that it was prescribed for a cold. It was pointed out that this was related to an increase of resistant bacteria that made the medicine ineffective.

The National Center for Global Health and Medicine did a questionnaire survey on antibacterial medicine on 721 ordinary men and women aged from teens to sixties in the whole country through the Internet.

In the survey, when people were asked "What kind of sickness was antibacterial medicine useful for?”, 49.9 % said the “cold" while 49.2% answered "the flu”; it was found out that nearly half of people had made a mistake in their understanding. Furthermore, when asked about "the medicine you want to be prescribed when seeing a doctor because of a cold", 30.1 % of the people answered "antibacterial medicine".

Doctor Gu Yoshiaki of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine which conducted the survey said that "facing the strong hope of a patient, there are situations that a doctor can't sometimes help but prescribe; it's necessary to spread what is right for the general public."

              So, to educate members of the public is important in doing away in-correction understanding.