Posted by Michael Wonder on 10 Dec 2016
'Patients will die if they don't fix this': hospitals rationing, stockpiling first-line antibiotics amid drug shortage
11 December 2016 - A national shortage of three first line antibiotics is forcing hospitals to stockpile, ration and use back-up treatments that expose patients battling serious infection to more toxic drugs, and embolden superbugs.
The drugs vancomycin, aciclovir and metronidazole are the latest in a long list of antibiotic shortages over the past few years which are the most effective, least expensive, least toxic and least likely to cause resistance, infectious diseases doctors say.
