Antibiotics to the rescue

The use of antibiotics on intensive care patients increases their chances of survival, a study led in the Netherlands has found.

A team of researchers from the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht compared the effect of two types of antibiotic treatments on nearly 6,000 Dutch patients in intensive care units (ICUs) across 13 hospitals.

The study, published recently in the United States, argues that its findings settle a long-running debate between the advantages of preventive antibiotic use and the drawbacks of people potentially developing antibiotic resistance.