The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7207 p92
20 July 2002

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Prescribers need to address the problem of antibiotic resistance

The problem of antibiotic resistance needs to be addressed by both prescribers and politicians, not just at a research level, Professor Sebastian Amyes, department of medical microbiology, University of Edinburgh, said at a symposium on anti-infectives held in London last week.

"We need to change our attitudes to antibiotics," he said. Antibiotics should not be viewed as a panacea if their use is to be preserved for the next generation.

He added that the "right things" have not been done in terms of preventing person-to-person spread of infection. Patients are moved much more quickly through hospitals than they were previously and are discharged earlier, often taking antibiotics home with them. This greater movement of patients increases the spread of resistance. In addition, the concentration of young children in crèches or day care centres is in contrast to a previous era where they were often isolated from one another. The cost of treating these children with antibiotics has been the development and spread of resistance, he said.

Professor Amyes added that hospital design may be exacerbating the spread of resistant strains. He pointed out that some modern hospitals placed patients close together to reduce nursing resources, often without sufficient decontamination facilities.

The symposium was organised by the Institute of Biology and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society