Short-term antibiotic therapy for the most common bacterial respiratory infections in infants and children

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Infectious Diseases
• Antimicrobial Stewardship
• Bacterial Respiratory Infections

Background:

• Antibiotic overuse and misuse accelerate bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
• Increased antibiotic selective pressure correlates with therapy duration.
• This has prompted re-evaluation of antibiotic therapy durations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current knowledge on short-term antibiotic therapy for common pediatric infections.
• To assess the feasibility of systematically using short-term therapy in infants and children.
• To discuss the impact on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Main Methods:

• Narrative review of existing literature.
• Analysis of studies on short-term vs. long-term antibiotic therapy.
• Focus on acute streptococcal pharyngitis (ASF), acute otitis media (AOM), and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Main Results:

• Reducing antibiotic duration for pediatric respiratory infections may help contain antibiotic abuse and AMR.
• Short-term therapy has shown effectiveness comparable to long-term therapy in some cases of ASF, AOM, and CAP.
• Evidence suggests short-term therapy is a viable measure for specific pediatric infections.

Conclusions:

• Short-term antibiotic therapy can be as effective as long-term therapy for certain pediatric respiratory infections.
• Systematic use of short-term therapy could be a strategy to limit AMR emergence.
• Further studies are required to define patient populations who benefit most from shorter antibiotic courses.