The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 100 million course of antibiotics are provided by office-based doctors each year. Approximately half of those are unnecessary; being prescribed for colds, coughs or other viral infections.
Facts About Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance:
In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a Scottish scientist discovered the first antibiotic.
Antibiotics became widely available in the 1940s.
In 1954, two million pounds of antibiotics were produced in the United States. Today, the figure exceeds 5o million pounds.
Antibiotics work by either killing bacteria (bactericidal) or by inhibiting growth (bacteriostatic).
Humans consume 235 million doses of antibiotics annually. It is estimated that 20-50% of that use is unnecessary.