Thousands of unnecessary prescriptions are being written for Australians with coughs and colds, adding to the growing threat of superbugs, a new report shows.
Professor John Turnidge, senior medical advisor from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare (ACSQH), said the report revealed the very high rates of prescribing in the Australian community.
“More than 50 per cent of people with colds and other upper respiratory tract infections were prescribed antimicrobials when not recommended by guidelines,” he said.
The ACSQH report revealed in 2014, almost half of all Australians were prescribed antimicrobial therapy. Penicillin was the most common.
We have to convince both the GP and the patient that an antibiotic is not required,” Professor Turnidge said.
He said patients needed to be educated that the vast majority of infections in the community were viral, not bacterial, and did not require any antibiotics.
The new report is the most comprehensive picture of antimicrobial resistance and appropriateness of prescribing in Australia.
It looks at emerging trends of superbugs, and raised particular concerns about level of e-coli and VRE (vancomycin resistant organisms).
VRE can occur in very ill patients, those with IV drips, and those patients having complex intra-abdominal surgery, Professor Turnidge said.
“It’s at astronomical levels and has a significant impact on patients and hospitals,” he said.
Antimicrobial resistance is when bacteria change to protect themselves from the effects of antimicrobials.
The World Health Organisation called it an “increasingly serious threat to global public health”.
The report found many Australian patients with acute tonsillitis, sinusitis, middle ear infection or acute bronchitis received antimicrobial therapy but “this should be the exception for this, not routine therapy”.
Professor Turnidge said the overuse of antibiotics could explain the rise of golden staph in the community.
“Whenever you take a course of antibiotics, you create a little vacuum for the resistant bugs to be picked up,” he said.
That makes people more susceptible to pick up golden staph if someone they come into contact with has it.
The report also flagged concerns that patients were given the “wrong antimicrobial, for the wrong duration”.
“Many repeat scripts were written when they were not needed,” the report said.
This post originally appeared on ABC.
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Top Comments
I had bronchitis once, and because I worked in medical education field at the time, i researched antibiotic use with bronchitis. The difference is one or two days 'quicker' recovery with antibiotics than without but the illness lasts 6-12 weeks. My illness lasted about 3 months. I've never ever been so sick in my whole life, but I never went and got the antibiotics and I've never, for whatever reason, had a lung infection since, even when I've had the flu, and that was 15 years ago. I did not have pneumonia, which IS a requirement for antibiotics. My elderly mother with severe lung infection refused antibiotics five times over five weeks. She ended up in hospital, on antibiotics anyway. She was not properly diagnosed just refused because of articles about why doctors shouldn't prescribe. (I hope doctors won't be doing what they did with HRT based on that WHS flawed study and stop prescribing all together leaving women with surgical menopause suffer terribly and develop osteoporosis), instead they should look at each case and diagnose correctly and educate the patient about why antibiotics won't help in their particular case. If you don't need antibiotics they won't help. If you do need them, take the lot as prescribed even if you feel better.
Actual conversation I had with a Dr...
Me: "I'm feeling really achy and run down, I think I need a few days off work to rest"
Dr: "ok do you want some antibiotics or something?"
Me: "Do I need antibiotics?"
Dr: "I don't know.."
Me: "Well will they help me feel better?"
Dr: "I don't know"
Me: "um... then why did you offer them?"
Dr: "oh most people want them because they think they'll fix anything!"
Me: "But... You're the Dr..."
Seriously! Similar situations have happened on more than one occasion! I had an issue once & the Dr gave me a prescription but couldn't tell me what was wrong?! They were just hoping for the best! It's ridiculous & a symptom of the broken system! What happened to their pride & work ethic? Who's holding them accountable? Most importantly they should definitely NOT be taking orders from the patient!!!