OXFORD scientists have found that an increase in E coli bloodstream infections over the last 20 years has been driven mainly by patients being treated outside of hospitals.
The study, which looked at health records in Oxfordshire since 1998, has suggested that improving antibiotic use in GP surgeries could help to combat the spread of difficult-to-treat, antibiotic-resistant E coli infections.
E coli is now the leading cause of bloodstream infections in the UK with the bacteria increasingly becoming resistant to the common antibiotic co-amoxiclav.
Karina-Doris Vihta, of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, said the team wanted to find out whether this was because the infection might be spreading in hospital, or becoming more common in people in the community.
The study found that GP surgeries that prescribed more co-amoxiclav in the previous year were more likely to see more ‘co-amoxiclav-resistant’ E coli urinary tract infections.
Dr Nicola Fawcett, one of the co-authors of the study published in the Lancet, said: “This research suggests that measures to improve antibiotic use in GP surgeries might be effective in preventing resistant E coli bloodstream infections from increasing further, and becoming more difficult to treat."
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