Dr. Gerard Sheehan:

There is a risk of the over treatment or over diagnosis of patients and that antibiotics will be inappropriately used in a very prolonged fashion. The poor stewardship of antibiotics poses a broad risk to the general population. One must realise that antibiotics are one of the great miracles of medicine and date from the mid-20th century. They were initially very effective against most organisms but half of antibiotics, or possibly more, are now ineffective. There is a very high possibility that all antibiotics will become ineffective within a generation or two. It is very important to consider the stewardship of antibiotics, that is, not using them when there is no benefit from such use. The prolonged treatment with antibiotics of patients who have falsely positive Lyme disease tests and an incorrect diagnosis is the most extreme example of such poor stewardship in medicine. There are, of course, many other examples. We must address antibiotic stewardship.