The Ministry of Health explained how attitudes towards antibiotics changed during the pandemic

As data on the treatment of covid-19 was updated, the procedure for prescribing antibiotics changed , Vladimir Chulanov, chief freelance specialist of the Russian Ministry of HEALTH for infectious diseases, told RBC.

He said that from January 2020 to October 2023, the department issued 18 versions of treatment recommendations. According to Chulanov, initially the use of antibiotics was quite widespread both in RUSSIA and abroad, but already in June 2020, criteria for prescribing antibacterial therapy were prescribed - “exclusively for signs of a bacterial infection.”

“In accordance with these criteria, antibiotics could be prescribed by a DOCTOR at the outpatient or inpatient stage of treatment,” Chulanov explained.

He noted that patients often “succumbed to panic” and began taking antibiotics unnecessarily.

Previously, experts from the World Health Organization reported that in the treatment of COVID-19, patients around the world abused antibiotics: about 75% of patients took such drugs “just in case,” although only 8% had a need to take them.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the chief freelance microbiologist of the Russian Ministry of Health, Professor Roman Kozlov, warned that antibiotics do not prevent infection with CORONAVIRUS, and their treatment not prescribed by a doctor poses a threat that microorganisms will become resistant to such drugs.