The NHS has been challenged to “curb inappropriate antibiotic prescribing” by encouraging the sensible use of antibiotics, while also promoting a cutting back on the unnecessary prescribing of drugs.
The call comes from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), whose director of clinical practice, Prof Mark Baker, said that while he didn’t think there was a lot of bad practice among GPs, it was clear a previously forecast reduction in antibiotic prescribing, dating from 2007, simply hadn’t happened.
The NICE statement, issued alongside new guidelines for antimicrobial prescribing, coincided with a summer twitter push by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the interaction between humans and animals in relation to treatment regimes.
Efsa, whose next specific meeting on AMR is scheduled to be held on November 12 and 13 in Parma, has taken the opportunity of the EU’s current holiday pause in official meetings to alert consumers to the dangers attached to AMR.
The Authority twitter feed today, for example, includes a video explaining how AMR relates to food safety and an infographic on what AMR is and how it impacts on human and animal health.
The NICE statement, at the same time, includes the warning that AMR is currently being “compounded by the fact that the discovery of new antibiotics is at an all-time low”.