When Trouble Hits Those Holes in Your Head

NY Times: "You've had a cold for five to seven days and thought you were getting better. Then it grew worse. More congestion, increasing fatigue and now headache or facial pain around your nose or eyes or upper teeth. You guessed it was a sinus infection. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, the doctor's examination and inclinations about treatment, you may be prescribed an antibiotic. But is this what you need to get better? Chances are, it is not. Most cases of acute sinusitis are caused by viruses, not bacteria, and taking an antibiotic does nothing more than enrich the pharmaceutical companies and increase the chances of being infected with drug-resistant bacteria. The average adult catches two or three colds a year, and 0.5 to 2 percent of them are complicated by bacterial infections. In other words, if antibiotics are prescribed for most sinusitis cases, they are most likely being way overprescribed. In the course of a year, an estimated 37 million Americans experience sinusitis, the fifth most common diagnosis for which antibiotics are prescribed in outpatient settings. But how is the doctor to know whether an antibiotic is what is needed? Unless a sample of the pus in the nasal cavities is examined under a microscope - a rare act in most physicians' offices - there is no certain way to tell."