A study has found that overuse of antibiotics are responsible for superbugs rather than dirty hospitals. Researchers at the University of Oxford, showed that the widespread prescription of fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin was the reason behind a serious stomach bug Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), that caused a diarrhoea outbreak in Britain in 2006. Following this the National Health Services ordered thorough cleaning of the hospital to combat lack of hygiene. However, the cases of C. difficile fell only when fluoroquinolone use was restricted and used in a more targeted way as one part of many efforts to control the outbreak, the researchers said.
The restricted use of fluoroquinolones resulted in the disappearance in the vast majority of cases and lead to around 80 per cent fall in the number of these infections. "Our study shows that the C. difficile epidemic was an unintended consequence of intensive use of an antibiotic class, fluoroquinolones and control was achieved by specifically reducing use of this antibiotic class, because only the C. difficile bugs that were resistant to fluoroquinolones went away," said Derrick Crook, Professor at University of Oxford.
Meanwhile, the smaller number of cases caused by C. diff bugs not resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics remained the same. Infection prevention and control measures such as better hand washing had no impact on the number of C.diff bugs transmitted between people in hospital, the researchers noted.
Controlled use of antibiotics is the most important way to control the C. difficile superbug.
For the study the team analysed data on the numbers of C. diff infections and amounts of antibiotics used in hospitals and by doctors in Britain.
