J Antimicrob Chemother. 2018 Apr 1;73(4):833-834. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkx535.
Antibiotics are indispensable for treating bacterial infections, but their effectiveness is threatened by the emergence and spread of antibacterial resistance. Antibiotics are unique among drugs since the more they are used, the less effective they become because bacterial resistance is likely to develop. In response to this threat, the UK government aims to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in humans by 50% by 2020. A team at Public Health England has found that at least 20% of antibiotic prescriptions in primary care in England were inappropriate, which, if correct, implies that antibiotic prescribing nationally needs to be reduced by 10% by 2020. These data are published in five articles in a Supplement to JAC entitled Appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing in English primary care. Inappropriate prescribing was found in every general practice included in the analyses so each one should attempt to reduce unnecessary prescriptions, not just high-prescribing practices. An ambition of 10% reduction in antibiotic prescriptions seems attainable when compared with the reduction targets of other European countries. The need for substantial improvements in data quality that are necessary to further safeguard this precious resource is also highlighted by the authors in this Supplement.
抗生素在治疗细菌感染方面不可或缺，但由于抗菌药物耐药性的出现和传播，其疗效受到了威胁。抗生素在药物中是独一无二的，因为使用得越多，它们的效果就越差，因为细菌耐药性很可能会发展。针对这一威胁，英国政府旨在到 2020 年将人类的不合理抗生素处方减少 50%。英国公共卫生署的一个小组发现，在英格兰的初级保健中，至少有 20%的抗生素处方是不合理的，如果这是正确的，那么这意味着全国范围内的抗生素处方需要在 2020 年减少 10%。这些数据发表在《抗菌药物与化疗》杂志增刊的五篇文章中，题为“英国初级保健中抗生素处方的适宜性”。在分析中纳入的每一个普通诊所都发现了不合理的处方，因此每个诊所都应该尝试减少不必要的处方，而不仅仅是高处方实践。与其他欧洲国家的减少目标相比，减少 10%的抗生素处方的目标似乎是可以实现的。本增刊的作者还强调了需要大幅提高数据质量，以进一步保护这一宝贵资源。
