Hospital superbug spread linked to antibiotics

Researchers today warned that over-use of antibiotics is boosting rates of infection by drug resistant bugs in southern and eastern Europe.

The results of their study suggest that the time has come to consider whether it is ethical to promote antibiotics in cases where they are unnecessary, they said.

Professor Herman Goossens, from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, who led the research, said: "In view of the emergency of bacterial resistance and the decline in the rate of development of novel antibiotics, effective professional and public strategies to encourage appropriate prescribing of antibiotics should be studied and implemented.

"If not, we will lose the miracle drugs of the 20th century."

His warning about antibiotic resistance was based on the results of the research which compared antibiotic use and resistance rates in 26 European countries from 1997 to 2003.

The researchers found that the willingness of family doctors to prescribe antibiotics varied greatly across the continent with the highest rate reported in France while the Netherlands had the lowest prescribing rate.

Writing in the Lancet medical journal, they said they believed the findings might explain why infections by bacteria resistant to antibiotics are more common in southern and Eastern Europe than in northern countries.

The trend across Europe showed antibiotic use was generally lowest in northern countries, greater in eastern regions and highest in the south. Seasonal variation of prescription levels was much less in northern Europe than in the south or east.