Antibiotics prescriptions in Australia eight times higher than other developed counties

ANTIBIOTIC addiction is rife and can cause death. The problem is exacerbated by 50 per cent of doctors wrongly prescribing antibiotics for viruses.

THE population is addicted to antibiotics using them at a rate double the best performing developed countries.

And half of our doctors prescribe them for colds and viruses even though they won’t help.

News Corp Australian revealed on Wednesday that doctors are being urged by their peers not to prescribe antibiotics for ear infections or the common cold.

Parents are also being urged not to give children paracetamol or ibuprofen for fever where there is no pain or distress.

The recommendations are part of 61 tests and treatments doctors are being urged to limit as part of the NPS Choosing Wisely campaign.

The nation’s antibiotic prescribing rate is the eighth highest in the developed world and was more than double that of countries prescribing the lowest volumes of antibiotics, NPS MedicineWise says.

ANTIBIOTIC APOCALYPSE: It’s happening to our neighbour

APOCALYPSE SPREADS: superbug now in European and Asian counties

Abusing antibiotics can cause major health problems. Picture: iStock

The medical advice changing what you know about health care. Artwork: Daniel Murphy

However, abuse of the medicines is starting to drop.

A recent NPS MedicineWise survey found 13 per cent of people would ask their doctor for antibiotics when they had a cold or flu in 2015, down from 17 per cent in 2014.

There are 60 antibiotics available for use in hospitals and every day hospital pharmacist Professor Michael Dooley says he sees patients dying of infections they can no longer cure.

“Australians tend to always want to reach for a pill but the message we’re trying to get across is we need to reserve antibiotics for infections where they are really needed,” he says.

“People are coming in now with infections that used to be easy to treat and now they are facing a life-threatening situation.”

Prof. Dooley says our bingeing on antibiotics is fuelling the rise of antibiotic resistant superbugs.

One in five deadly golden staph infections are now antibiotic resistant and one in five of those who caught them died.

The proportion of e-coli bugs that cause urinary tract infections that are multi-drug resistant rose from 4.5 per cent in 2008 to 7.2 per cent in 2010.

Last year NPS Medicinewise sent 28,000 general practitioners letters showing them their recent oral antibiotic prescribing patterns to make them reflect on their prescribing.

Prof. Dooley says one reason doctors prescribe antibiotics even when they won’t work is because they come under pressure from patients to write the script.

“The Choosing Wisely campaign is important because its trying to get the message to patients that antibiotics are not always the first choice,” he says.

A simple ear infection will usually be fought off by the body’s own defences with one or two days and instead of using antibiotics parents should try to manage their child’s symptoms with pain relief alone, he says.

Most upper respiratory infections are caused by viruses and antibiotics don’t work on viruses, he says.

EMAIL:[e-mail]

TWITTER:@Sue_Dunlevy