The effect of antibiotics on mortality from infectious diseases in Sweden and Finland

E. Hemminki and A. Paakkulainen

American Journal of Public Health, 1976, vol. 66, issue 12, 1180-1184

Abstract: A study was carried out to determine whether the preexisting decline in mortality rates from infectious diseases accelerated after the introduction of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic drugs. Linear regression showed that in Sweden mortality rates declined faster in septicemia, syphilis, and non meningococcal meningitis after the introduction of these drugs. By contrast, for the ten other infectious diseases studied, (scarlet fever, erysipelas, acute rheumatic fever, puerperal sepsis, meningococcal infection, bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and acute gastroenteritis) no such accelerated decline in mortality could be detected. The findings suggest that antibiotic and chemotherapeutic drugs have not had the dramatic effect on the mortality of infectious diseases popularly attributed to them.

Date: 1976
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1976:66:12:1180-1184_2

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