Pneumonia linked to antibiotics use

Deaths from pneumonia have soared since doctors were told to stop giving out antibiotics for coughs and sore throats.

A study shows a 50 per cent rise during a five-year period in the late 1990s - just as antibiotic use fell sharply.

The policy was introduced in 1998 to curb antibiotic resistance, with hospital superbugs such as MRSA thriving by changing their chemical make-up to avoid being wiped out.

Now experts fear the Government may have gone too far and caused GPs to deny lifesaving drugs to pneumonia patients.

The study findings have now led to a rethink. The Specialist Advisory-Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance, which advises the Government, is considering changing its advice to GPs on antibiotic use for chest infections.

Chairman Professor Richard Wise said: 'We are concerned that patients might not be receiving optimal treatment.

' We have asked a number of experts to urgently evaluate the evidence.'

The Aberdeen University study, to be published next month in the medical journal Respiratory Medicine, shows excess winter death rates - those which are above annual average levels - from pneumonia went up from 20.4 per 100,000 in 1995- 96 to 30.7 in 1999-2000.

GPs cut prescriptions for antibiotics for this kind of illness - known as lower respiratory tract infections - by 30 per cent over the same period.

In 1998, the committee recommended that antibiotics should not be used to treat coughs, colds and sore throats because most are caused by viral infections which do not respond to antibiotics.

But the committee said if a bacterial infection was suspected which posed a health risk, then antibiotics could be prescribed, according to a report yesterday in the GPs' magazine Pulse.

Dr Mike Thomas, who helped carry out the study, said the difficulty in diagnosing pneumonia was well known and delayed or insufficient antibiotic treatment could harm some patients.

He said: 'We can't say there is a cause and effect relationship but it does ring alarm bells.'

The British Thoracic Society (BTS), which represents doctors treating lung infections, says it is essential to treat pneumonia with antibiotics.

It says delaying antibiotics, insufficient treatment or using the wrong antibiotic is linked to unnecessary deaths and increased disability

Although simple coughs, colds and viral sore throats do not require antibiotics, lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis do, says the society.

Spokesman Dr Mark Woodhead explained: 'The important thing is that doctors cut inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics but ensure they are still given to patients who need them.'

The data used in the study came from the Royal College of General Practitioners, the National Office of Statistics, IMS Healthcare and the Prescription Pricing Authority.