Amoxicillin is a strong antibiotic used to treat many different types of infection caused by bacteria, such as tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, gonorrhea, and infections of the ear, nose, throat, skin, or urinary tract. As such, it is the first one to be prescribed for acute otitis media or simple viral infection However, this infection it is not caused by bacteria and has contributed to the advent of antibiotic resistance. The side effects of Amoxicillin are also a problem such as diarrhoea, fever, swollen gums, painful mouth sores, pain when swallowing, skin sores, cold or flu symptoms, coughing, breathing difficulties etc.
A study has confirmed that excessive amount of antibiotics have been prescribed for treating acute otitis media in recent years. More than 11 million antibiotic prescriptions are written each year for children and this may well be unnecessary. Dr Matthew Kronman et al. believe that because of the high level of antibiotics prescribed to children, there is a hazardous development of bacterial infection in the direction of antibiotic resistance. The routine use of antibiotics to treat middle ear infections is not recommended because of the lack of evidence to show that antibiotics speed up the healing process. In many cases, otitis media is caused by viruses, against which antibiotics are ineffective.
