Researchers claim to have shown for the first time that antibiotic prescribing within geographical communities can lead to localised antibiotic resistance. In a two year study involving patients in North and South Wales, data on susceptibility to antibiotics in routine urine samples taken by GPs for diagnosing urinary tract infections were compared with prescribing data for each practice. Data from around 190 practices were included. Correlation between the prescribing of an antibiotic and resistance to the same antibiotic was often significant.
"These findings bring the debate on prescribing in the community from the national to the local level and provide preliminary evidence that practitioners may have to face the broader consequences of their antibiotic prescribing among their own patients," the authors say. The research was carried out by a team from the Public Health Laboratory Service in Wales, with colleagues from the University of Wales and Bro Taf health authority and is published in the British Medical Journal (1999;319:1239).