'Rush for antibiotics may kill'

Panic prescription of antibiotics after the anthrax attacks in the US could lead to more deaths than the bugs themselves, a scientist said today.

The mass-prescription of Cipro might have made bugs resistant to the antibiotic, Dr Chris Willmot of the University of Leicester told the British Association Annual Science Festival.

These included bugs that cause pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia which, unlike anthrax, are common and contagious.

After the first attacks, which killed five people, 30,000 prescriptions for Cipro were given, and more was acquired from irregular sources.

Cipro is of a class of drug for unidentified infection. "There is a real possibility that resistance [to the drug] will develop as a direct consequence of the massive overuse of Cipro," said Dr Willmot.