Antibiotic Doses for Children Need Review?

A group of physicians and researchers in the UK stated guidelines on prescribing antibiotics for children's current needs to be updated. Medicine experts also called for a review of the guidelines that apply during the last 50 years.

Experts warn that children who are obese or overweight is possible only in a dose of antibiotics less than they should be given. Despite the difficulty finding evidence that obese children suffer from too low a dose, experts say there should still be a better guide than the rules that apply now.

Since the decade of 1960, the doctors work with based on the sort of "doctrine" that the obese child is equivalent to half the adults, while children of small stature equal to half of obese children. "The baby is equivalent to half of the children of small stature," said a group of physicians and researchers from the British Medical Journal, in the Thursday (16/12/2011) issue.

Researchers said, if the kids get a dose of antibiotics less than they need, chances are that they suffered an infection will not heal completely. It also triggers an increase in immune children to antibiotics.

"It's much more appropriate to dose by weight," Dr. Jeremy Friedman, pediatrician and head of the division of pediatric medicine at SickKids in Toronto, told CBC News. He says that large pediatric centres like Sick Kids rely on their own formulary which measures doses by weight, not age. However, he says some physicians who treat children — but who don't focus on them exclusively — may rely more often on standard dosing guidelines which are based on age. "It would not be infrequent for us to see a patient getting too low a dose or too high a dose," he says of patients he sees at the hospital.

"If bacteria can not be turned off completely by antibiotics, the bacteria will mutate into new forms that are more resistant to drugs, and can spread to other children," said the researchers. *** [GUARDIAN | CBC.CA | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3740]