Study: Ear Infections Clear up without Antibiotics

An August 10, 2000 report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds that not only do the new and more expensive antibiotics provide no additional benefit for the treatment of ear infections, in many cases antibiotics are not needed at all.

In the report, investigators found that almost two-thirds of children with "uncomplicated acute otitis media...recover from pain and fever within 24 hours of diagnosis without (antibiotic) treatment...and over 80% recover within 1 to 7 days."

A nearly indiscriminate use of antibiotics in the treatment of ear infections is one factor that has lead to the major increase in strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States. Countries such as the Netherlands that don't routinely use antibiotics in the treatment of ear infections have a rate of bacterial resistance of about 1%. The US average rate of bacterial resistance is now around 25% and climbing.

By way of commentary, we must ask why doctors keep treating ear infections with antibiotics when studies repeatedly show that it's ineffective and contributes to the more dangerous problem of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains? Perhaps part of the answer lies in the fact that the more than 5 million cases of acute ear infections that occur every year are treated at a cost of about $3 billion.