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Double attack

The growing global menace of drug resistant germs compounding the problem of infectious disease control has been traced to economy measures in hospitals. Jerome Schentag, University of Buffalo, New York told the American Society of Microbiology that in view of the high cost of antibiotics, physicians prescribe only a few less expensive medicines. Schentag believes that using several antibiotics to wipe out infections would be a better strategy rather than just prescribing a single antibiotic. Other suggestions of his team include cycling between drugs, switching over from intravenous to oral mode which also help in reducing cost besides being effective ( New Scientist , Vol 150, No 2033).

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