Attention prescribers: be careful with antibiotics
2007; Elsevier BV; Volume: 369; Issue: 9560 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0140-6736(07)60208-6
ISSN1474-547X
Autores Tópico(s)Respiratory and Cough-Related Research
ResumoMicrobiologists have known for some time that exposure to antimicrobial drugs leads to antimicrobial resistance. But trying to convince our scientific colleagues has not been easy. Quite simply, antibiotic consumption is difficult to measure accurately, along with surveillance of the corresponding resistance rates in different populations. These problems have led to the evidence being associative and not necessarily causal. The need to prove the link between antimicrobial consumption and increasing resistance has now gained momentum and the report by Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar and colleagues 1 Malhotra-Kumar S Lammens C Coenen S Van Herk K Goossens H Effect of azithromycin and clarythromycin therapy on pharyngeal carriage of macrolide-resistant streptococci in healthy volunteers: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Lancet. 2006; 369: 482-490 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (387) Google Scholar in today's Lancet provides a robust challenge to attitudes that maintain ambivalence over the consequences of inappropriate and uncontrolled antibiotic prescribing. Effect of azithromycin and clarithromycin therapy on pharyngeal carriage of macrolide-resistant streptococci in healthy volunteers: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled studyThis study shows that, notwithstanding the different outcomes of resistance selection, macrolide use is the single most important driver of the emergence of macrolide resistance in vivo. Physicians prescribing antibiotics should take into account the striking ecological side-effects of such antibiotics. Full-Text PDF
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