Doctors need to start prescribing antibiotics much more carefully or they will tip SA back to the pre-antibiotic era, when a simple infected scratch could prove deadly. [s]Business Day[/s] reports this warning from the [b]16th International Conference on Infectious Diseases[/b]. There are so few novel antibiotics in the pipeline that the medical fraternity needed to go all out to conserve those available, said Dr Adrian Brink of [b]Ampath Laboratories[/b]. 'Antibiotics are life-saving medicines… but we overuse them to a terrible extent. Half of them are not needed,' said Prof Marc Mendelson of the [b]University of Cape Town[/b], noting they were also overused among animals. The issue of how to preserve today's medicines – be they for bacteria, fungi or viruses – is of such grave concern that the [b]World Health Assembly in Geneva[/b] is due to meet next month to discuss the issue.
[link url=http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/health/2014/04/04/golden-era-of-antibiotics-quickly-coming-to-an-end]Full Business Day report[/link]