Overuse Of Antifungal Skin Medications May Be Contributing To Rise In Drug-Resistant Infections, CDC Report Indicates

HealthDay (1/11, Mundell) reports, “U.S. doctors are prescribing antifungal creams to patients with skin complaints at rates so high they could be contributing to the rise of drug-resistant infections, new research shows.” Looking at 2021 Medicare Part D data, the CDC “found that 6.5 million prescriptions for creams containing antifungals ... were prescribed that year.” Healio (1/11, Gallagher) reports, “Primary care physicians prescribed 40% of topical antifungals – 2.6 million prescriptions overall – but ranked third among all specialties with 12.3 prescriptions written per [clinician].” Meanwhile, “dermatologists had the highest rate of prescribing topical antifungals at 87.1 prescriptions written per [clinician], followed by podiatrists (67.2).” The findings were published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.