Health chiefs' antibiotics warning

HEALTH chiefs at Warrington are supporting the Prime Minister’s call for action to cut the use of antibiotics.
Dr Dan Bunstone, Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group’s clinical lead for long term conditions, said: “We’re supporting the call for action on this urgent problem.
“People will again start dying from routine infections if this is not addressed.”
Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that the world could soon by “cast back into the dark ages of medicine” unless action is taken to tackle the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics.
He has announced a review into why so few anti-microbial drugs have been introduced in recent years.
Economist Jim O’Neill will lead a panel including experts from science, finance, industry, and global health.
It will set out plans for encouraging the development of new antibiotics.
In Warrington, Dr Bunstone said one of the reasons MRSA has become such a concern in hospitals is that is has developed antibiotic resistant strains.
He said: “Warrington’s GPs are advised not to prescribe antibiotics unless needed – and we want patients to understand the reasons why.
“Antibiotics won’t help with colds and the ‘flu, but taking them unnecessarily will add to the global problem – and increase your personal risk that antibiotics won’t work for you anymore.
“I’d also urge people to take care with hygiene in all situations to avoid infections.
“The more we have to use antibiotics, the more chance there is of developing resistance to them, and this makes treating bacterial infections much more difficult.”
Mr Cameron discussed the issue at a recent G7 leaders meeting in Brussels and got specific support from US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It is hoped that the review panel’s proposals will be discussed at next year’s G7 summit, which will be hosted by Germany.
The Prime Minister said: “Penicillin was a great British invention by Alexander Fleming back in 1928.
“It’s good that Britain is taking the lead on this issue to solve what could otherwise be a really serious global health problem.”
He said the panel would analyse three key issues: the increase in drug-resistant strains of bacteria, the “market failure” which has seen no new classes of antibiotics for more than 25 years, and the over-use of antibiotics globally.
It is estimated that drug-resistant strains of bacteria are responsible for 5,000 deaths a year in the UK and 25,000 deaths a year in Europe.