- Using antibiotics can lead to an increase in the chances
of a patient carrying antibiotic resistant bacteria, a study revealed today.
-
- The study tested urine samples from 3,000 healthy adults
registered with GPs in the Bristol and Gloucester areas.
-
- The researchers found samples taken from people who had
been prescribed antibiotics within two months of the test were almost twice
as likely to carry antibiotic resistant E.coli bacteria.
-
- Dr Alastair Hay, from Bristol University, who is also
a GP in the city, said the resistant strains had been given an advantage
by the antibiotics.
-
- He said: "The use of antibiotics allows organisms
that may exist in small quantities, and are resistant to that antibiotic,
to predominate.
-
- "All the susceptible bacteria get killed off so
that those that are remaining are the ones which are resistant. They are
given a selective advantage within the body."
-
- E.coli bacteria
-
- The E.coli bacteria, naturally found in the human gut,
were tested for resistance to the common antibiotics Amoxicillin and Trimethoprim.
-
- Patients who had taken antibiotics 12 months before the
test did not have increased levels of resistant bacteria because the time
period was too long and non-resistant bacteria had returned.
-
- Dr Hay said GPs would not be too concerned when it came
to prescribing antibiotics in the future.
-
- Dr Hay said: "We know that the use of antibiotics
in the last 50 or 60 years has led to the development of antibiotic resistant
bacteria on a population level.
-
- "But when it comes down to an individual level the
risks are less easy to quantify.
-
- "Although GPs are aware of the problem in the population
as a whole, when deciding whether or not to prescribe antibiotics for an
individual they may consider the risk as being minimal."
-
- The samples tested came from adults who were not displaying
any symptoms of urinary disease.
-
- Dr Hay said: "The first clinical implications of
this study may be that if a patient has recently had a course of antibiotics,
a GP may want to choose a different antibiotic if the patient subsequently
develops a urinary infection."
-
- The research, funded by the British Society for Antimicrobial
Chemotherapy is published in the July 2005 edition of the Journal of Antimicrobial
Chemotherapy.
-
- ©2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd
-
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/h
ealth/healthmain.html?in_article_id=356335&in_page_id=1774
|
