Latest Scottish report shows drop in antibiotic use, stable resistance levels
In an annual report for 2018, public health officials in Scotland yesterday said total antibiotic use in humans has dropped by 6.2% since 2014, and resistance has stayed mainly stable.
The findings, from Health Protection Scotland, for the first time include data on animal antimicrobial use from small-animal veterinary practices and data on environmental antimicrobial resistance.
Among other key findings on antimicrobial use, the authors report that, since 2014, levels have declined by 10.2% in primary care but increased by 16.0% in acute care hospitals. For 2018, more than one in four people in Scotland (27.3%) received at least one antibiotic course in primary care settings. The new information from small animal veterinary practices found that at least one in five consultations resulted in a prescription for at least one antibiotic.
Regarding latest trends on antibiotic resistance in humans, infections involving carbapenemase-producing bacteria have increased significantly since 2014, but there was no change between 2017 and 2018. Resistance to vancomycin, a key antibiotic used to treat resistant infections, has increased to 43.2% in some infection types, and in 2018, nearly 10% of gonorrhea cases showed some resistance to azithromycin.
On a positive note, the level of resistance to antibiotics prescribed for Escherichia coli bacteremia and similar infections has been stable of the past 5 years, the authors found. And in 2018, two thirds of Salmonella infections in animals were fully susceptible to antibiotics tested, showing no change from 2017. The group said the level of antibiotic-resistant infections in animals has been relatively stable since 2014.
Nov 12 Health Protection Scotland report
Study: Antibiotic prescriptions rates high in Japan
A study today in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases surveyed Japanese antibiotic prescription rates from 2012 to 2015 via electronic health insurance claims and found that 56% of prescriptions were written for infections for which antibiotics are rarely indicated.
The national health insurance database claims showed 659 million infectious disease visits from April 2012 through March 2015 across the country, with antibiotics prescribed at 266 million visits (704 prescriptions per 1,000 population per year). Antibiotics were most commonly prescribed for upper respiratory infections, with bronchitis being the most frequently cited diagnosis for prescriptions (58.3% of prescriptions, or 184 prescriptions per 1,000 population per year). Other high rates were for viral upper respiratory infections (40.6%), pharyngitis (58.9%), and sinusitis (53.9%).
Gastrointestinal infections accounted for 26.1% of prescriptions. The vast majority (86%) of oral antibiotics prescribed were broad-spectrum (third-generation cephalosporins, macrolides, or quinolones), and antibiotics was prescribed approximately 6.6 times more frequently for infections that did not require antibiotics than infection for which antibiotics are usually indicated, the authors said.
"Prescriptions of oral antibiotics should be reduced at least 50% based on our data, showing that >50% of them (391 per 1000 population) were prescribed for conditions where antibiotics are generally not indicated," the authors concluded. "Broad-spectrum antibiotics were too frequently prescribed and most of them were prescribed for acute respiratory infections, which should be the main targets of antimicrobial stewardship intervention."
Nov 13 Int J Infect Dis study