Book chapter
Principles of Anti-Infective Therapy
Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, pp 1412-1421
2012
Abstract
When a child develops signs and symptoms consistent with a bacterial infection, the clinician must first decide if the child’s illness is caused by an infection or other inflammatory process. For the child who may benefit from antimicrobial therapy, the clinician must select an agent that is the safest and most effective at curing the infection. Inappropriate antibiotic therapy given to a child with a viral infection exposes the child needlessly to the toxicities inherent in the antibiotic, adds to the selective pressure driving antibiotic resistance in bacteria, creates unnecessary costs to the medical system, and may divert the focus of attention from the most appropriate evaluation and therapy for the child’s infection. The selection of optimal antibiotic therapy for presumed bacterial infection is based on the balance of benefits and risks of specific therapy for each child. [1st paragraph]
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Details
- Title
- Principles of Anti-Infective Therapy
- Creators
- John S. BradleySarah S. Long
- Publication Details
- Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, pp 1412-1421
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Edition
- 4th
- Number of pages
- 10
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Pediatrics
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84966891670
- Other Identifier
- 991019335238204721