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Antibiotics Are Useless In Treating Most Sinus Infections
An anonymous reader writes "While doctors routinely prescribe antibiotics to treat sinus infections, researchers on Tuesday revealed that amoxicillin, the most commonly prescribed medication for nasal cavity inflammation and sinuses, was just as effective as a dummy pill. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, found that there was no significant difference in symptoms between patients taking amoxicillin to those who took the placebo three days after starting the pills were administered."
You can't effectively treat biofilms with antibiotics. And that is exactly what this type of infection is--a biofilm.
A better approach is the use of biofilm "release" enzymes that signal the cells within the biofilm to stop producing EPS and detach from whatever surface they are clinging to. Use of such enzymes alongside antibiotics in a medical setting is likely to work even better.
Most sinus infections are viral. Nothing to see here.
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Big leap from "no significant difference in symptoms between patients taking amoxicillin to those who took the placebo"
to "Antibiotics Are Useless In Treating Most Sinus Infections". How many bugs are resistant to amoxicillin at this point?
How many of the patients had bacterial infections?
more cowbell
Antibiotics are very quick - their major effect is in the first couple of days of a 10 day (2 week, whatever) course. The extra week or more of pills is to make absulutely sure that everything that can be killed off, is. This is to prevent (or at least restrict) the chance of any drug-resistant strains developing.
One of the major problems in countries like France (where drugs are handed out like sweets) and in the developing world (where people can't afford the whole course, or save some for "next time") is people not finishing up a full course of antibiotics because 3 days in, they feel well and can't see the need to swallow any more of the evil pills that have given them diarrhoea and other stomach problems (the main side effect of broad spectrum antibiotics....).
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
THE AC submission was alarmist and wrong.
The research did not show the anitbiotics are useless.
It showed the Amoxicillin had no significant statistical difference at day three. BUT statistically significant results on day 7, no difference on day 10.
What this means is the people taking Amoxicillin got better sooner.
The person who wrote the headline and summary should be ashamed of themselves.
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