Open AccessThe effect of antibiotics on mortality from infectious diseases in Sweden and Finland.
Author(s) -
E. Hemminki,
A Paakkulainen
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.66.12.1180
Subject(s) - medicine , typhoid fever , antibiotics , mortality rate , erysipelas , pneumonia , bronchitis , sepsis , syphilis , scarlet fever , tuberculosis , meningitis , immunology , pediatrics , virology , surgery , dermatology , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , pathology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)
A study was carried out to determine whether the preexisting decline in mortality rates from infectious diseases accelerated after the introduction of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic drugs. Linear regression curves showed that in Sweden mortality rates declined faster in septicemia, syphilis, and non-memingococcal meningitis after the introduction of these drugs. By contrast, for the ten other infectious diseases studied, (scarlet fever, erysipelas, acute rheumatic fever, puerperal sepsis, meningococcal infection, bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and acute gastroenteritis) no such accelerated decline in mortality could be detected. The findings suggest that antibiotic and chemotherapeutic drugs have not had the dramatic effect of the mortality of infectious diseases popularly attributed to them.