From here.
A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, backs this up with shocking numbers: Four out of five Americans got a prescription for an antibiotic in 2010. That amounts to 258 million courses of the drugs (keep in mind there are only about 309 million Americans total). What’s even more worrisome is that researchers estimate that half of these prescriptions weren’t even needed.
Among the drugs most commonly overprescribed were penicillin drugs, which kill bacteria by breaking down bacteria cell walls, and macrolides, a type of antibiotic that stops bacteria from growing. Azithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic frequently used to combat bronchitis, pneumonia, and sexually transmitted diseases, was the most-prescribed antibiotic.
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