The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland has warned the amount of antibiotics being prescribed needs to be reduced because of the growth in antibiotic resistant hospital infections such as MRSA and C. diff.
The college says Ireland is one of only three European countries where outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are increasing.
In a document, published today, it says that the public can help by understanding that not every infection requires an antibiotic and that colds and flu-like illnesses, which are caused by viruses, do not respond to antibiotics.
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Since the 1980s few new antibiotics have been developed to deal with antibiotic resistance and the emergence of new infections.
The college says that the pharmaceutical industry does not appear to see significant profits from developing important but infrequently used anti-bacterial agents to treat resistant bacterial infections. Few if any new drugs are expected in the foreseeable future to deal with hospital-acquired infections, it adds.
The college has introduced a mandatory prescribing skills course for junior doctors on its training programmes.
