Bacteria from southern Europe are often more resistant

Countries in southern Europe have a higher use of antibiotics than other countries and bacteria are often more resistant. This has become clear from a publication by researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) and the universities of Nottingham, Maastricht and Antwerpen. The article is published in BMC Infectious Diseases.

During the last fifty years, various strains of bacteria have become resistant to more types of antibiotics. New generations of antibiotics are still not forthcoming which means that we have to be careful in prescribing antibiotics in order to be able to treat infections effectively in the future. Guidelines for prescribing antibiotics are often based on data regarding resistance in hospitalized patients but 90% of all antibiotics are prescribed for patients who are not hospitalized. The researchers therefore looked for links between the use of antibiotics and resistant strains of bacteria in the general population.
 
Strict rules for prescribing
They found a clear link between antibiotic use in the population and the development of resistant strains of bacteria. Not only in individual patients, but also at local, regional and country level. In southern European countries especially, more antibiotics are prescribed and there are more strains of resistant bacteria. Professor François Schellevis, a departmental head at NIVEL explains: “In order to counteract further resistance, it is important that antibiotics are only prescribed when they are absolutely necessary and to match the choice of antibiotic against the pattern of resistance. Many countries are making efforts to ensure that antibiotics are only prescribed when there is a clear indication to do so, and also to choose the most suitable antibiotic for the patient.”
 
Research
The researchers compared 243 international scientific studies for links between antibiotic use and resistance in European countries. The study is part of the APRES-project (The Appropriateness of Prescribing Antibiotics in Primary Health Care with respect to Antibiotic Resistance) that is being led by NIVEL and that is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission.

Cooperating partners
University of Nottingham
Maastricht University
University of Antwerp