Antibiotics are linked to superbugs
 

Scientists studied two antibiotics commonly used to treat lung infections, clarithromycin and azithromycin.



They found that both drugs significantly increased numbers of antibiotic-resistant streptococci bacteria in 148 healthy volunteers' mouths.



AdvertisementAzithromycin was the quickest to provoke resistance, the researchers, including Stephanie Dancer, from the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, reported in the Lancet medical journal. However, clarithromycin induced a powerful form of resistance.



The drugs belong to a family of broad-spectrum antibiotics called macrolides which are derived from soil bacteria and are used to treat many infections.



The researchers found that the effect of a single course of antibiotics on natural non-harmful mouth bacteria lasted more than 180 days.



Such bugs could serve as a reservoir of resistance-conferring genes that might be passed on to potentially dangerous bacteria, they said.



The team, led by Herman Goossens, from the University Hospital Antwerp in Belgium, wrote: "Macrolide use is the single most important driver of the emergence of macrolide resistance in vivo (outside the laboratory) Physicians should take into account the striking ecological side effects of antibiotics."



Dr Dancer commented: "The key message is that antibiotic prescribing affects the patient, their environment, and all the people that come into contact with that patient or with their environment.



"Doctors who understand this point can influence the risk of antimicrobial resistance, not only for our current patients, but also for patients in the future."



Figures published in December by the Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality (SASM) showed that nearly one in five patients who died after surgery in Scotland in 2005 had picked up an infection in hospital.



More than 300 patients who had operations developed a bug and died, according to the SASM report. The superbug MRSA contributed to the deaths of 75 people.



The review found that 17.8% of patients who died after surgery had a hospital-acquired infection. Of those, 126 had MRSA.



A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said: "We have issued guidelines to NHS boards in Scotland on the prudent use of antibiotics."



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