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Volume 8, Number 12—December 2002
Perspective

Outpatient Antibiotic Use and Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant Pneumococci in France and Germany: A Sociocultural Perspective

Stephan Harbarth*Comments to Author , Werner Albrich†, and Christian Brun-Buisson‡
Author affiliations: *University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland; †Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; ‡University Hospital Henri Mondor, Créteil, France

Main Article

Table

Comparison of patterns of antibiotic prescribing and diagnostic tests for respiratory tract infections, France and Germanya

Variables France Germany
Average no. office visits for acute tonsillopharyngitis per 1,000 population 136 51
Average no. antibiotic prescriptions per 100 office visits for acute tonsillopharyngitis 94.6 69.6
Average no. office visits for common cold per 1,000 population 253 19
Average no. antibiotic prescriptions per 100 office visits for common cold 48.7 7.7
% of patients not receiving antibiotics at first office visit for
Suspected community-acquired pneumonia 8 23
Acute bronchitis 7 31
Exacerbation of chronic bronchitis 5 26
Viral lower respiratory tract infection 20 41
% of cases of suspected lower respiratory tract infection with diagnostic tests performed
Chest radiograph 18 27
Peripheral blood leukocyte count 14 27
Microbiologic sputum examination 3 12

aSources: (12,20,21).

Main Article

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