Antibiotic overuse could threaten medicine

[Guest guest]

Infectious bugs increasingly becoming resistant to drugs, experts say

updated 8:53 a.m. CT, Tues., Nov . 10, 2009

LONDON - Overuse of antibiotics in Europe is building widespread resistance and

threatening to halt vital medical treatments such as hip replacements, intensive

care for premature babies and cancer therapies, health experts say.

Dominique Monnet of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control's

(ECDC) scientific advice unit said the " whole span of modern medicine " is under

threat because bugs are becoming resistant to antibiotics, rendering the drugs

useless.

" If this wave of antibiotic resistance gets over us, we will not be able to do

organ transplants, hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, intensive care and

neonatal care for premature babies, " he told reporters at a briefing.

Antibiotics are needed in all these treatments to prevent bacterial infection.

But drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem in hospitals worldwide, marked

by the rise of superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus

(MRSA).

Such infections kill about 25,000 people a year in Europe and around 19,000 in

the United States

On top of the risks to future treatments, Monnet said the costs of antibiotic

resistance were already hurting — and may hit healthcare budgets across the

European Union yet harder if the problem is not addressed.

The six most common multi-drug-resistant bacteria — often referred to as

superbugs — cause around 400,000 infections a year in Europe, killing around

25,000 people and using 2.5 million hospital days a year.

The ECDC, which monitors and advises on disease in EU, calculates that with a

hospital day costing an average of 366 euros ($548), superbug infections are

already sucking up 900 million euros a year in extra hospital costs, and a

further 600 million euros a year in lost productivity.

" Across the European Union the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria

is increasing and that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public

health, " the ECDC said.

Britain's government was criticized by a parliamentary committee on Tuesday for

failing to tackle the majority of hospital-acquired infections by narrowing its

focus to two high profile ones — MRSA and Clostridium difficult.

The ECDC is planning an " antibiotic awareness " campaign on November 18 to urge

doctors to stop overprescribing antibiotics.

Patients demanding antibiotics for viral infections often are not aware that

they will not work, it said, but doctors are and should stop giving in to

pressure.

Earnshaw of the ECDC's communications unit, pointed to a 2002 survey that

showed 60 percent of patients do not know that antibiotics do not work against

viruses like flu and colds.

" Patients often demand antibiotics, " she said. And doctors often think, she

said, that giving in is a quicker way to deal with a demanding patients than

persuading them otherwise.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33824016/ns/health-more_health_news/