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As many as 28% of hospitalized patients requiring mechanical ventilators to help them breathe (for more than 48 hours) will develop ventilator-associated pneumonia. Current therapy involves intravenous antibiotics, but new antibiotics that can be inhaled (and more directly treat the infection) are being developed.
In the United States, an estimated 50 million unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for viral respiratory infections.
More than 34,000 trademarked medication names and more than 10,000 generic medication names are in use in the United States.
The most destructive flu epidemic of all times in recorded history occurred in 1918, with approximately 20 million deaths worldwide.
Medication errors are more common among seriously ill patients than with those with minor conditions.