Extract of Today's news report (dated 10 Nov 2009, p.23):Antibiotics not the solution
LONDON - Family doctors are to be told to stop prescribing antibiotics for coughs and colds because overuse is contributing to the spread of hospital bugs and putting vital treatments under threat.
The European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is to write to all general practitioners warning them of the dangers of routinely handing out the drugs.
Experts at the influential Stockholm-based centre say that the prescription of the pills is fuelling the rise in the number of infections that are resistant to antibiotics.
They have warned that modern medicine is reaching a point when it will no longer be able to function because antibiotics are powerless against life-threatening hospital infections.
GPs have claimed that they often feel under pressure from patients who are angered if they are refused treatment for colds and sore throats even though antibiotics do not combat viruses.
Senior expert Dominic Monnet, from the scientific advice unit at the ECDC in Stockholm, said: "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. It is the whole span of modern medicine as we know it, that we will not be able to do if we lose antibiotics."
United Kingdom government scientists agreed that there was "a public health threat" from infections that are resistant to multiple antibiotics and there was an urgent need to develop new treatments.
In July, the National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence issued guidance to doctors telling them not toprescribe antibiotics to those patients who are suffering from minor illnesses such as an ear infection, sore throat, tonsillitis, a cold, sinus infection, cough or bronchitis. The DailyTelegraph
They have warned that modern medicine is reaching a point when it will no longer be able to function because antibiotics are powerless against life-threatening hospital infections.
GPs have claimed that they often feel under pressure from patients who are angered if they are refused treatment for colds and sore throats even though antibiotics do not combat viruses.
Senior expert Dominic Monnet, from the scientific advice unit at the ECDC in Stockholm, said: "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. It is the whole span of modern medicine as we know it, that we will not be able to do if we lose antibiotics."
United Kingdom government scientists agreed that there was "a public health threat" from infections that are resistant to multiple antibiotics and there was an urgent need to develop new treatments.
In July, the National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence issued guidance to doctors telling them not toprescribe antibiotics to those patients who are suffering from minor illnesses such as an ear infection, sore throat, tonsillitis, a cold, sinus infection, cough or bronchitis. The DailyTelegraph
