Resistance to certain antibiotics has increased considerably in Europe over the last ten years. Ours is one of the countries with the most cases of resistance detected, either due to the excessive consumption of antibiotics or their indifferent use. The consequences of this improper use can be terrible in the event of a serious infection. What is the way to deal with this dark landscape? Raise the awareness of citizens in general and health professionals in particular, of those working in the field of childhood and juvenile infections.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is launching an annual campaign to promote the rational use of antibiotics. It is a question of raising awareness of the importance of responsible consumption of these medicines. According to the ECDPC, more than 25,000 Europeans die each year from multi-resistance problems caused by antibiotics.

The main objective of this year’s campaign has been to promote the rational use of antibiotics in hospitals, as improper use can mean lengthening hospital stay and increasing care costs, as well as increasing the mortality rate in serious infections. In addition, resistance is a delay in appropriate antibiotic treatment.

However, in some countries, 90% of antibiotic use occurs outside the hospital, in 85% of cases to treat respiratory infections, especially in the coldest months.

Prescribing fewer antibiotics in children

In developed countries, otitis is one of the most common causes of antibiotic prescribing in childhood. The beneficial effects of antibiotics to stop the complications of infections and accelerate the recovery process are well known. However, as noted in a review of 135 studies conducted between 1999 and 2010 in the journal The Journal of the American Medical Association, the prescription of antibiotics should be much smaller.

According to this study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, between 4% and 10% of children treated with antibiotics experience side effects, mainly diarrhea or red spots. For this reason, experts recommend assessing the defects of antibiotic treatment and not thinking that new brands of antibiotics will always obtain better results than traditional or “older” ones.

When and how to take antibiotics?

Antibiotics are known to be effective only in bacterial infections and not in cases of cooling or influenza viruses, or in most cases of cough and throat pain. However, we are the ones who take more antibiotics without a prescription to try to solve this type of less serious health problems among all European countries, despite knowing the damage it entails not keeping these drugs for the necessary cases: improper use can cause bacteria to resist, and once the antibiotic is administered it can be useless. Therefore, prescribing antibiotics should be the sole responsibility of a healthcare professional, and not the decision made by the patient.

Once the need to take antibiotics is assured, it is necessary that the consumption be responsible, respecting the quantity and frequency prescribed. It is recommended that leftover medicines should not be stored after the end of treatment. In addition, the treatment should not be halved, even though the symptoms have disappeared. Experts' forecasts are rather feared: if antibiotic resistance continues to grow at the present rate, there will be no effective drugs for certain diseases before it is too late.