Doctors in Bavaria have recently prescribed fewer antibiotics to their patients than before the start of the corona pandemic. While there were 4.8 million antibiotics in 2019, the number fell by a good ten percent to 4.3 million by 2022, as the Bavarian AOK health insurance company announced on Tuesday. In 2020 and 2021, however, the number of prescriptions was even lower. The numbers are based on data from the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.
The health insurance company is concerned about prescriptions for so-called reserve antibiotics, particularly powerful drugs against multi-resistant bacteria. These were prescribed in 46 percent of all antibiotic prescriptions in 2022 and were therefore less common in 2019. Nevertheless, doctors often use these medications too carelessly. If used excessively, bacteria would become more resistant to antibiotics.