The politics of antibiotics

"The average Greek or Frenchman consumes about three times as much antibiotics as the average Dutchman or Swede," says David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, who leads on antibiotic resistance at Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2014-05, Vol.509 (7498), p.S16
Main Author: Cully, Megan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Animals
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotics
Bacteria
Bans
Physicians
Prescription drugs
Public health
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:"The average Greek or Frenchman consumes about three times as much antibiotics as the average Dutchman or Swede," says David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, who leads on antibiotic resistance at Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency of the UK Department of Health. Exposure to chemicals such as triclosan, the active ingredient in many antimicrobial cleaning agents, can select for mutations in genes that encode bacterial efflux pumps, which can eject antibiotics.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687