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Antibiotic overprescribing continues to contribute to the emergence of resistant organisms. To assess the effect of antibiotic prescribing on antibiotic resistance in individual patients, researchers conducted a prospective, observational cohort study of 119 children with acute respiratory tract infections who presented to general practitioners in Oxfordshire, England. Research nurses collected throat swabs from all participants at recruitment, 2 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Seventy-one children (59.7%) received a β-lactam antibiotic (amoxicillin in 70 patients), and the remainder received no antibiotics. At 2 weeks, the mean minimum inhibitory concentration for amoxicillin was more than three times higher in bacterial isolates from children who rec…