Fears over antibiotic misuse

Almost one-third of antibiotics prescribed in Australian hospitals are used incorrectly, a study shows.

The survey of 151 Australian hospitals, including 27 in WA, found some of the commonly prescribed antibiotics were used wrongly in 40 per cent of cases.

Antibiotics are used to treat a range of bacterial infections, including respiratory conditions, urinary tract infections and infections of the ear or skin.

There are concerns about bacteria developing drug resistance, including strains of E. coli that cause many urinary tract infections and golden staph, a common cause of skin infections.

Survey results were released by the National Health Medical Research Council and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care as part of Antibiotic Awareness Week.

In WA hospitals, one of the major problems was the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which worked against many bacteria, compared with narrow- spectrum types.