20 pct of anti-biotics are inappropriate, research reveals

LONDON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least one-in-5 prescriptions for antibiotic medicines in Britain are inappropriate, Public Health England (PHE) said in a report Tuesday.

Research by PHE put primary care prescribing, usually through family doctors, under the microscope.

The conclusion implied, said that antibiotic prescribing nationally should be reduced by 10 percent by 2020, in accordance with the national ambition to cut levels of inappropriate prescribing in half.

PHE's Medical Director, Professor Paul Cosford, said: "Antibiotics are critical to modern medicine, saving millions of lives since the 1940s when they were first introduced. Using antibiotics when you don't need them threatens their long term effectiveness and we all have a part to play to ensure they continue to help us, our families and communities in the future."

Cosford said the new report highlights the role GPs (family doctors) can play, urging all surgeries to look at ways of reducing their inappropriate prescribing levels to help make sure the antibiotics that save lives today can save lives tomorrow.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "Drug-resistant infections are one of the biggest threats to modern medicine and inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics is only exacerbating this problem.

"Since 2012, antibiotics prescribing in England is down by 5 percent and we've invested more than 615 million pounds (855 million U.S. dollars) at home and abroad in research, development and surveillance."

Hunt added: "We need to go further and faster otherwise we risk a world where superbugs kill more people a year than cancer and routine operations become too dangerous."

Antibiotics are important for treating serious bacterial infections, but their effectiveness is threatened by antibacterial resistance. Antibiotics are unique among drugs as the more they are used, the less effective they become and over time resistance develops.

The British government has set an ambition to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing by 50 percent by 2020. The research found that the majority of antibiotic prescriptions in English primary care were for infections of the respiratory and urinary tracts.

An antibiotic was prescribed in 41 percent of all uncomplicated acute cough consultations when experts advocated 10 percent, while in 82 percent of cases of bronchitis, an antibiotic was prescribed against an ideal level of 13 percent. Enditem