Rising obesity prompts higher antibiotic doses call

Kudos, fatsos, you are too fat for human-sized dosing of medications.

Patients may have to be prescribed higher doses of antibiotics because of rising rates of obesity, say doctors.

The standard "one-size fits all" dose may not clear infection in larger adults and increases the risk that resistance will develop, they argue.

More work is needed to guide GPs on how and when to alter doses, an editorial in The Lancet to accompany the study by doctors from Greece and the US says.

GPs said it was an interesting theory but may end up being expensive.

Around one in four adults in England is classified as obese - an increase from 15% in 1993.

Given the fact people are getting larger, use of standard doses of antibiotics in all adults, regardless of size, is outdated, argue two doctors from Greece and the US.

Size and even the proportion of body fat a person has, can effect the concentration of antibiotics in the body, potentially reducing how effective they are in larger patients, they say.

And failure to clear an infection because too small a dose is given may raise the risk of resistance - already an increasing problem for doctors.

And you are putting the rest of us at risk, to boot.

Pay for your sick care? Not a chance.

Fight back, normal-sized people. Fight back.