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Area doctors, residents encouraged to 'Get Smart About Antibiotics"

A set of standards about when antibiotics should be prescribed has been developed for doctors in the Lafayette area.

Indiana University Health Arnett, Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health, the Tippecanoe County Health Department and Unity Healthcare are working together on the “Get Smart About Antibiotics” campaign.

IU Health Internal Medicine doctor Sarah Hallberg says often patients think they need an antibiotic to feel better.

She says it’s up to doctors to explain that these drugs are only useful in fighting bacterial illnesses and suggest other ways to get relief from their symptoms.

Hallberg says when antibiotics are over-prescribed, bacteria become resistant to those medications.

She says locally that has resulted in an increase in drug-resistant urinary tract infections, staph infections, and e coli bacteria, among other things.