Study Backs Hospital Antibiotics for COPD

Bacterial infections cause only about half of the hospital stays linked to a common lung disease. But it may be best to give everyone antibiotics right away, a new study finds. Researchers looked at records for 85,000 people. All had been admitted to hospitals with problems related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This lung disease hinders breathing. It’s almost always caused by smoking. In the study, 8 out of 10 people got antibiotics during their hospital stay. Doctors may not prescribe them unless tests show an infection. But people who got these drugs within the first two days had better results, the study found. They were less likely to need a ventilator or to have their treatment fail. Their hospital death rate was lower. And they were less likely to be readmitted quickly The Journal of the American Medical Association published the study.