Via CIDRAP: NEWS SCAN: Seasonal antibiotic resistance, resistant TB in Europe, Vietnam's mystery disease, Hispaniola cholera prevention. Excerpt:
Seasonal increases in antibiotic use, such as in the winter when upper-respiratory infections spike, can drive short-term changes in antibiotic resistance, according to a US study in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
A team led by Princeton researchers looked at 1999 through 2007 records from a large retail prescription database on five antibiotic classes that make up 70% of prescriptions each year. They compared the trends with those in an electronic susceptibility test result database that includes more than 300 US labs.
They found strong correlation between some combinations of antibiotic prescriptions and resistance levels in Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with the correlation strongest between resistance and the drugs that are most heavily prescribed. For example, they found that resistant E coli prevalence lagged aminopenicillins and fluoroquinolones by 1 month.
The authors of the study said in a press release today from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) that the findings suggest that antibiotic prescribing restrictions set by hospitals could be undermined without coordinated community efforts to curb unnecessary use. They said that decreasing inappropriate antibiotic use through flu vaccination and better education of physicians and patients could have an impact.
