Advice on overuse of antibiotics ‘is too late’

A new campaign to raise awareness of the risks of antibiotic overuse from the Health Protection Agency and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is too late, according to a leading MRSA charity.

Tony Field, chairman of MRSA Support, has said that the campaign, entitled Ask About Antibiotics, is “very necessary” but “about ten years too late”.

While new technologies, such as antimicrobial computer keyboards, should be welcomed, Mr Field said that much more needed to be done.

“The real need is to go back to proper aseptic techniques of thirty to forty years ago when nurses wore masks to prevent infected moisture droplets from falling into wounds,” he stated.

Mr Field added: “They should be using aseptic techniques and using disinfectants rather than the detergents they often use.”

He concluded that current techniques like dry mopping are “ridiculous” and that more would be needed, despite “basically good moves in the right direction”.

Antibiotic overuse is a problem since bacteria can become resistant to existing antibiotics. Despite the last few years being a relatively sparse period in the development of new antibiotics, there have been some notable new options, such as Wyeth’s Tygacil.