Antibiotics overused, seminar hears

IRELAND IS one of only three European states where levels of antibiotic use among patients in the community is continuing to increase year on year, a seminar in Dublin heard yesterday. As a result, there is a high level of resistance to antibiotics in the Republic.

Dr Robert Cunney, consultant microbiologist with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, told the seminar that up to 20 per cent of pneumococcal infections here were now resistant to penicillin. There was also a "worrying" increase in the level of resistance among E.coli infections to the quinolone group of antibiotics - strong antibiotics used for life-threatening infections.

"We must take steps to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use," Dr Cunney said, "otherwise we risk squandering one of the most important medical advances of the past 100 years."

While outpatient antibiotic use in the Republic is higher than the EU average, the level of use within the State varies from one county to another. The reasons may reflect socioeconomic factors, demographic factors or pharmaceutical marketing.

A three-week advertising campaign is planned by the HSE to raise public awareness that antibiotics are not the solution for common colds, coughs or flu. Antibiotics are effective only against bacterial infections, not viral ones.

It is hoped the campaigns will bring down antibiotic resistance - a key factor in the spread of hospital superbugs such as MRSA.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times