Antibiotic prescribingare there lessons for physicians?

Abstract

In 1968, L.P. Garrod wrote `no one recently qualified, even with the liveliest imagination, can picture the ravages of bacterial infection which continued until more than 30 years ago'. Since then, although many new antimicrobials have been developed, we are once again warned of an imminent `post antibiotic era' as a consequence of the rapid emergence of resistant bacteria. This problem has recently culminated in the publication of an excellent report from the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology on `Resistance to Antibiotics and the other antimicrobial agents'.<sup>1</sup> The subsequent plethora of editorials<sup>2, 3</sup> in the medical press and `sensationalist' coverage in the media has brought this important subject to the attention of the non-specialist medical community as well as the public domain. This increased concern has culminated in the British Medical Journal devoting a whole issue to this subject (Br Med J 1998; 317) and the occurrence of an important meeting on this subject of medical officers from throughout Europe in Copenhagen, September 1998.