Can i take levaquin for a sinus infection

The public-health campaigns to curb antibiotic use are not working especially well, as I discovered last month during a nasty bout with sinusitis. As someone with asthma, allergies, and a deviated septum all known risk factors , I get sinus infections a lot, so while I waited around for my condition to improve, I read up on the latest treatment research. After being sick for several days, I finally ventured out to see a doctor, even though I suspected there was nothing he could do.

Despite all the exhortations about antibiotic overuse, the ear, nose, and throat specialist I saw not only wanted to give me an antibiotic, he pressed me to take a powerful, broad-spectrum one called Levaquin, one of the few drugs effective against certain really deadly bacteria—like anthrax.

For obvious reasons, the CDC strenuously warns against using this kind of drug indiscriminately. Not only is Levaquin major overkill for a sinus infection, it has potential side-effects psychosis, seizures, and liver and nerve damage, to name a few that are far more horrible and serious than green snot. It is quickly becoming impotent against things that people really need it for, like hospital-acquired pneumonia.

The lack of a quick test for bacterial sinusitis is one of the major obstacles to reducing antibiotic overuse, because it forces doctors to play the guessing game. In the end, I left with a prescription for Augmentin, an antibiotic that the CDC recommends as the first-line defense against a bacterial sinus infection.

I never filled it. One week later, the green snot was gone. Hicks adds that half of all antibiotics in the United States are prescribed in vain to treat viral illnesses. He concedes, however, that he has trouble following his own advice. It also warns that these infections take at least two weeks to clear up, something American doctors seem reluctant to do. The problem is that not everyone has the option of going home to bed. Nearly 40 percent of all workers—and almost 80 percent of the lowest-wage ones— have no paid sick leave whatsoever.

See map below. This is one reason that American workers only take, on average, about 5 days off a year due to illness, compared with more than 16 in Germany, and 22 in Sweden. Earlier this month, members of Congress reintroduced the Healthy Families Act , a bill that would require employers with more than 15 employees to let workers accrue 56 hours of paid sick leave annually, and bar companies from retaliating against people who have the gall to use it.

The bill also would allow people to stay home and care for a sick kid or other family member. The bill, first introduced nearly a decade ago, has long been touted as a desperately needed weapon against a potential influenza pandemic, when keeping the infected at home would be critical to saving lives.

Research shows that it also could greatly reduce the spread of gastrointestinal illnesses, because workers without paid sick leave are concentrated in service jobs like restaurants and day care, where they are in the position to spread their germs far and wide. The business community, naturally, hates the bill and has blocked its passage, just as it has fought state and local initiatives that would mandate sick pay.

But those efforts are monumentally short sighted. Arms and Interventions. Outcome Measures. Primary Outcome Measures : Clinical success resolution of patient signs and symptoms at the post-therapy visit.

Eligibility Criteria. Information from the National Library of Medicine Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Inclusion Criteria: Diagnosis of acute bacterial sinusitis, defined by clinical signs and symptoms lasting for less than 28 days and the presence of visible nasal infection, and confirmed by computed tomography CT or standard sinus x-rays Two or fewer episodes of bacterial sinusitis within the preceding 12 months Willing to undergo maxillary sinus puncture or endoscopy Exclusion Criteria: Chronic sinusitis Use of systemic antibiotics within the past 72 hours Presence or history of serious complications of sinusitis Surgery for treating sinusitis Required daily use of more than 20 milligrams of prednisone oral steroid Cystic fibrosis.

Contacts and Locations. Information from the National Library of Medicine To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor. Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.

More Information. National Library of Medicine U. National Institutes of Health U. Department of Health and Human Services. Drug: levofloxacin. Phase 3. Study Type :. The editors may edit letters to meet style and space requirements.

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