Antibiotics also are responsible for the largest numberof medication - related adverse events and the cause of about one in five visits to emergency departments for adversedrugreactions.
Adversedrugreactions kill tens of thousands of people annually; one widely cited study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1998 puts the number at more than 100,000.
The price can be measured in terms of the adversereactions from taking the drug, which may include any numberof the following: diarrhea, dizziness, muscle cramps, nausea, fatigue, insomnia, vomiting, weight loss, seizures, and death.