Resistance to antibiotic use causes alarm
Resistance to antibiotic use causes alarm
A CAMPAIGNER against the overuse of antibiotics has expressed alarm at the findings of research which shows strains of potentially lethal bugs like E coli are showing high levels of resistance to certain antibiotics.
Richard Young of the Soil Association said the results were particularly worrying as figures released on Feb 13 indicated sales of antibiotics are going up.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has released figures which show the decline in sales of antimicrobials between 1998 and 1999 was reversed in 2000.
Although there was a 14% drop in the use of antibiotics as growth promoters, overall sales went up by 9.5%.
There is a direct cause and effect link between resistance to antibiotics in animals and resistance in human medicine, said Mr Young. "This really is significant in human health terms."
The research which was published by DEFRA on Feb 12 points to signs that some bacteria were becoming resistant to some drugs.
Isolates of E coli showed a high level of resistance to tetracyline while 10% of campylobacter isolates collected from pigs were resistant to ciprofloxacin, it found.
A DEFRA statement on the results said the figures were not unexpected and were consistent with levels of resistance found elsewhere in the world. "In fact, the level of ciprofloxacin resistance found in Britain is lower than that reported in other EU countries that have published data," it said. *