A Serious Public Health Threat. But there is more to this message than its messenger will disclose. The conference features Stuart Levy, professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and president of the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics. For years, Mr. Levy has crusaded against misuse of antibiotics - an effort with some merit.
Food poisoning is already more difficult to treat.
Infections caught in hospitals, killing an estimated 88,000 annually, often resist at least one antibiotic. The problem of antibiotic resistance isn't new but the WHO alarm rightly spotlights one of the major causes - physicians unnecessarily prescribing antibiotic drugs. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that doctors wrote in one year 12 million antibiotic prescriptions for colds, bronchitis and other respiratory infections. But the study noted more than 90 percent of such infections are caused by viruses impervious to antibiotics. Another recent study concluded up to half of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary.