Norway’s state health authority, Helsedirektoratet, is asking doctors to prescribe shorter antibiotic treatments. The goal is to lower the risk of patients and their infections becoming resistant to an antibiotic cure.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported this week that use of antibiotics has risen by 19 percent since 2021, despite officials warnings of antibiotic resistance. Now state health authorities are changing their guidelines to secure a lower and “correct” use of antibiotics in Norway, and hinder bacteria from becoming resistant.
From now on, doctors should prescribe lower doses of antibiotics for those suffering from pneumonia, other respiratory ailments and urine infections among pregnant women. The current standard antibiotic cure for pneumonia is seven days, but health officials are lowering that to five days based on new research showing that it’s no longer necessary to go beyond that. Many patients also feel better after five days.
“The more antibiotics we use, the more resistant we can be,” Helen Brandstorp, divisional director at Helsedirektoratet, told NRK. “We want an antibiotic cure to work, and we don’t want bacteria to become resistant.”
NewsinEnglish.no staff
