From: deputyfife23x@gmail.com   
      
   Tue May 18, 2010 | 7:00 PM EDT   
      
   Overuse of antibiotics spurs vicious cycle   
      
   By Kate Kelland   
      
      
   LONDON (Reuters) - Patients whose doctors over-prescribe antibiotics may   
   develop drug resistance that lasts up to a year, putting them and the   
   population at risk when more serious treatment is needed, scientists said on   
   Wednesday.   
      
   The more antibiotics are prescribed for coughs and flu-like illnesses, or   
   urine infections, the more bacteria become resistant in a vicious cycle, said   
   British researchers who analyzed 24 previous studies of antibiotic resistance.   
      
   "The effect is greatest in the month immediately after treatment, but may last   
   for up to a year, and this residual effect may be a driver for high levels of   
   resistance in the community," said Alastair Hay, a consultant senior lecturer   
   in primary health    
   care at Bristol University, who led the research.   
      
   Medical experts say overuse of antibiotics in Europe, the United States and   
   other wealthy regions is building widespread resistance in and threatening   
   vital medical treatments from hip replacements and cancer therapies, to   
   intensive care.   
      
   Hay said his study showed how individual resistance was building up, and how   
   that then translated into community- or population-wide problems.   
      
   Antibiotics are needed in all these treatments to prevent bacterial infection,   
   but can be rendered useless if they are used so widely that bugs develop ways   
   to outwit them.   
      
   Multi drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem in hospitals worldwide,   
   marked by the rise of "superbug" infections like methicillin-resistant   
   Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA).   
      
      
   But Hay, whose study was published in the British Medical Journal, said the   
   problem of antibiotic resistance is often ignored in doctors' clinics, despite   
   the fact that some 80 percent of antibiotic prescriptions come from family   
   doctors.   
      
   "Up until now, the majority of the evidence has been at a population level, so   
   it was very easy -- both for clinicians and patients -- to say 'this isn't my   
   problem' or say 'just one more antibiotic isn't going to make a difference',"   
   Hay said.   
      
   "But the more we prescribe, the more the bacteria become resistant. And really   
   the only way of turning that vicious cycle into a virtuous circle is to only   
   prescribe when it is absolutely necessary in the first place."   
      
   Experts say the annual cost in the United States of treating infections   
   traceable to just six drug-resistant bacteria is more than $1.87 billion --   
   more than the yearly cost of treating flu.   
      
   In the European Union, added costs and loss of productivity as a result of   
   antibiotic resistance are estimated at around 1.5 billion euros ($1.85   
   billion) a year.   
      
   In a commentary on the study, Chantal Morel and Elias Mossialos, specialists   
   in economics and health policy from the London School of Economics, said it   
   showed how great the need was for new classes antibiotics to be developed.   
      
   Morel and Mossialos said financial incentives should be used to persuade drug   
   companies to invest in research to find, test and develop new antibiotics.   
      
   "In view of the rapid growth of antibiotic resistance...the intricacies of the   
   antibiotics market, and the cost savings from improved treatment, there is a   
   public health well as economic justification for intervention," they wrote.   
      
   ($1=.8114 Euro)   
      
   (Editing by Reed Stevenson)   
      
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