antibiotics – a tale of resistance
Have you ever been prescribed a course of antibiotics, felt better half way through taking them and then kept the rest of the prescription in your medicine cabinet for when you next feel ill?
Pat Troop, Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency explains why this isn't the best course of action…
'Your fever has gone because the antibiotics are suppressing the symptoms of whatever illness you have. However you may still have bacteria in your body. If you stop taking your antibiotics before the course is completed, the remaining bacteria can change, grow stronger and multiply. You'll then need different antibiotics to cure your next infection'.
The message is – always finish the course of any prescribed treatment!
Antibiotics are strong medicines that can stop some infections in their tracks and save lives. But antibiotics can cause more harm than good when they aren't used the right way.
All bugs have the ability to adapt and defend themselves against an attack from antibiotics. Many germs, including those that cause pneumonia, meningitis, and tuberculosis, can now outwit some of the most commonly used antibiotics.
However, antibiotic resistance isn't a new problem; certain types of bug have resisted antibiotic treatment ever since antibiotics first started to be used, more than 50 years ago. What's different now is that previous over-prescribing and misuse of antibiotics has caused a rise in resistance in a broader range of bugs.
So, everyone has a role to play in preventing the development and spread of bacteria which becomes resistant to antibiotics. It is important to know when antibiotics should and shouldn't be used so you can protect yourself and your family.
According to a large face-to-face British survey carried out by the Office of National Statistics Omnibus in 2003 for the Health Protection Agency, knowledge amongst the general public about antibiotic resistance is high: 79% of respondents knew that antibiotic resistance is a problem in British hospitals. However 38% of people incorrectly thought that antibiotics work against viral infections like coughs and colds; when actually they only work against bacterial infections, such as a sinus infection and their use must be kept to a minimum to prevent antibiotic resistance.
The survey also found, rather worryingly, that 10% of people have unfinished courses of antibiotics that have been prescribed to them in the past, still tucked away in cupboards at home. 44% of respondents kept them in case of future need and 18% of these had taken these drugs without medical advice.
According to author of the study, Dr Cliodna McNulty, those people who took part in the study who said they had leftover drugs were more educated, more knowledgeable about antibiotics, younger and the majority were women. She said 'One explanation may be that well-educated people are confident that they can make their own decisions about antibiotic drug use, and this may be particularly relevant when their infection is less severe or appears to have cleared up'.
However not only do members of the public have a role to play, so do doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. Dr McNulty said 'People may keep leftover antibiotics because too much was prescribed for their initial infection. If the standard duration of treatment could be shortened and package size reduced, the temptation to keep antibiotics at home might be less'.
the dangerous consequences of resistance
Since antibiotics have been introduced they have been used to treat some of the world's most serious infections such as bubonic plague, rabies, and leprosy. The rise of drug resistance leads to some antibiotics becoming useless and others needing to be developed rapidly to fill their place. Antibiotic resistance leads to a significant increase in treatment cost, drug toxicity and potential side-effects, and to patients taking longer to recover as their treatment time will be increased.
battling the bugs
Scientists and health professionals are generally in agreement that a way to reduce antibiotic resistance is through more cautious use of antibiotic drugs. However antibiotic resistance is not just a problem for doctors and scientists; we need to tackle this together. An important way that people can help directly is to understand that antibiotics are useless against common illnesses like colds and the flu so there is no point in asking for them as a treatment.
According to Professor Troop, 'Of course people's search for a quick cure is understandable; people don't want to miss work, or if they have a sick child they're willing to try anything that might work. But by taking an antibiotic, a person may be doubly harmed. First, it offers no benefit for mild infections like coughs, colds and most sore throats, and second, it increases the chance of a drug-resistant infection appearing at a later time. An important way that people can help directly is to take medicine exactly as your doctor or nurse prescribes it, and never use antibiotics without advice from a doctor or nurse.
(July 2007)
