Antimicrobial resistance is an internationally recognised threat to health. Throughout the world, children are frequent consumers of antibiotics - and such routine use has been shown to increase the probability of antibiotic resistance in adults with urinary tract infections. Yet little is known about the prevalence of bacterial resistance in children or the risk factors of importance in this group. Read the full article.
Lead author and School trainee, Ashley Bryce, PhD student at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol highlights that “Prevalence of resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics in primary care in children with urinary tract infections caused by E coli is high, particularly in countries outside the OECD, where one possible explanation is the availability of antibiotics over the counter.”
Article in the Telegraph, 15 March 2016: Half of children resistant to the most common antibiotics
Article in The Guardian, 16 March, 2016: Antibiotics becoming ineffective at treating some child infections
Article on BT website: Study warns of 'ineffective' antibiotics amid high resistance rates
Paper
Global prevalence of antibiotic resistance in paediatric urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli and association with routine use of antibiotics in primary care: systematic review and meta-analysis Ashley Bryce, Alastair D Hay, Isabel F Lane, Hannah V Thornton, Mandy Wootton, Céire Costelloe