Unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics to healthy/asymptomatic school-age carriers of potentially pathogenic bacteria

To re-draw attention to the unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics. We monitored nasopharyngeal colonization by 3 potentially pathogenic bacteria, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae type b in 81 children between the ages of 6 and 7 years who attended the same primary school. The children's health status was also monitored, without using antimicrobial treatment for healthy/asymptomatic carriers. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected on 6 occasions during autumn months, from mid-September to mid-December 2016. The children who fell ill during the study were treated at the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, Sisters of Mercy University Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia. Four hundred and sixty-three nasopharyngeal swabs were collected. Each child had at least one positive swab result. Bacterial colonization with Streptococcus pyogenes had the highest colonization rate. During the study, 83% of the children were healthy/asymptomatic carriers with no clinical signs of disease, while 17% became ill. The statistical results showed that the increase in all examined bacteria was statistically significant. Our study results showed that positive bacterial findings in nasopharyngeal swabs from clinically healthy carriers were not an indication for antibiotic therapy.