Rationing of medicines may be able to put a halt to the spread of MRSA in hospitals, according to experts.
The new guidance, issued to health boards by the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) as part of the Scottish Government's drive against hospital-acquired infections, urges to cut and delay doses of commonly prescribed antibiotics because of their role in the rise of hospital-acquired infections.
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According to experts, the move will help the fight against the superbugs Clostridium difficile (C diff) and MRSA because although antibiotics kill some bugs, they cause others to spread.
The present phenomenon of administering general antibiotics to many emergency admissions 'just in case' they respond to treatment will end.
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Certain widely used antibiotics, cephalosporins and quinolones, believed to be particularly associated with the spread of C diff and MRSA, will be strictly rationed.
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In the case of C diff, they kill 'good' bacteria in the gut that prevent C diff from growing and spreading.
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Professor Dilip Nathwani, chairman of the SAPG, said antibiotics 'are being given for too long and the wrong ones are being given'.
"Doctors and nurses need to think about whether patients need antibiotics and what the risks of antibiotics are," he added.
Also, doctors would be asked to keep duration of antibiotic courses to a minimum.
"In most situations it can be three, five or seven days," Nathwani said.
Doctors and campaigners welcomed the plan, but critics warned individual patient care must not be compromised.
Source-ANI
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