The questions and lingering concerns surrounding the overuse of antibiotics is an age-old and well-worn conundrum for physicians and patients. Even the latter group, well-informed as consumers of healthcare, can agree that most acute upper respiratory infections are most often the result of viral infestations which play themselves out in spite of antimicrobial treatment.The decision to (over)use them in standard medical practice is often the point of debate, as physicians weigh factors such as patient satisfaction and lingering medical and health policy issues surrounding resistance.

Last year, this blog reported on these issues as background for a program in which some retail pharmacy chains were giving away for free antibiotics to patients with prescriptions from their physicians as a way of helping with affordability in the wake of the debate on reform. The CDC offered a statement promoting the responsibilities providers, pharmacists, and patients should consider in taking part in such a program.

Smaller chain pharmacies are trying to compete with the big boys, and in trying to earn store-brand loyalty among their (un- and underinsured) consumers, they are throwing free antiobiotics their way. Last week, the CDC sent out letters those several chain pharmacies that offer no-cost prescription antibiotics to low-income consumers urging them to promote responsible use of antibiotics.

While the program was essentially successful in its efforts to bridge the gap between affordable, accessible healthcare and patient responsibility, no one was really prepared for the massive policy decisions that would have to be made as the June ’09 H1N1 pandemic loomed — after its initial discovery just one month after this initial Doctor Pundit posting.

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