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Antibiotics Breed Super Bugs: Survey
Friday, January 4, 2002
By Julie Robotham
Medical Writer

Antibiotics commonly prescribed to treat sore throats and ear infections in early childhood can make future illnesses potentially much more dangerous, new research shows.

A Canberra team discovered that children who had a recent course of antibiotics were twice as likely as others to harbour low levels of drug-resistant bacteria in their bodies.

The leader of the study, Associate Professor Peter Collignon, said if those background bugs, which were usually harmless, flared into an infection, it might not respond to conventional antibiotics and the child could become seriously ill.

Resistant bacteria could infect other people who came into contact with the child, causing problems, especially for the elderly.

Professor Collignon, director of microbiology and infectious diseases at Canberra Hospital, said the study of 461 preschoolers should send a strong message about antibiotics: "If you take them when you don't need them, they do harm not only to you, but to other members of the community."
(More: SMH.com News Source)
2002 © The Sydney Morning Herald.

Dan