Washington Post Letter to Editor: We Need Research on the Impact of Unregulated Antibiotics

By Letters to the Editor

November 17, 2019 at 6:42 p.m. EST

As a nurse practitioner serving uninsured immigrants in Virginia for the past 18 years, I’ve witnessed a hidden dimension of the antibiotic resistance crisis described in the Nov. 14 front-page article, “CDC upgrades superbugs’ threat level.” Many of my patients purchase unregulated antibiotics at local mercados or ask relatives in their home countries to send them medications in the mail. They then take these antibiotics for a few days when they are feeling poorly, sharply raising their risk of developing drug resistance. Very little data is available on the scope of this phenomenon or the quality of medications obtained this way.

While we constantly educate our patients about the proper use of antibiotics, any comprehensive strategy to limit drug resistance will need to include specific measures to address these behaviors.

Maura Constance, Falls Church