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Antibiotics and ‘superbugs’

Intensive care spec ialist Professor Guy Richards has waded into the antibiotics controversy saying that it is a myth that you have to complete the course of antibiotics you have been prescribed. He says in a report in [s]The Times[/s] that an antibiotic should be taken until a day after an infection has cleared up. ‘This is usually five days.’ Patients were incorrectly prescribed antibiotics for 10, 14 or 21 days, Richards said.

But Global Hygiene Council member Dr Kgosi Letlape said patients must take antibiotics for a minimum period: ‘Taking them for too short a time causes resistance.’ According to a professor of clinical microbiology at Wits University, Adriano Duse, ‘Between 70% and 90% of antibiotics prescribed by GPs are inappropriate.’

The issue of superbugs will be addressed by Richards and Duse at a public lecture Wits on June 30.

[link url=http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2014/06/19/antibiotics-not-smarties]Full report in The Times[/link]
[link url=http://www.wits.ac.za/health/hsro/prl10]Wits University Lecture[/link]

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