Antibiotic use continues to rise despite campaigns

The amount of antibiotics prescribed in Belgium has risen again over the last decade, despite numerous campaigns highlighting the harmful effects of intensive antibiotic use, according to a study published today by the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL).

The Belgian government has launched an annual awareness campaign since the early 2000s indicating the harmful consequences linked with excessive antibiotic use. “The aim is to inform the patient, so as to reduce the number of requests made for antibiotics, thereby making it easier for doctors to avoid prescribing them,” explains Paul Tulkens, professor emeritus at the UCL's Louvain Drug Research Institute, in Het Laatste Nieuws.

According to the UCL study, however, the total amount of antibiotics handed out to patients between 2001 and 2013 increased by 14%. “Ten years after the first campaigns and we are nowhere,” says Tulkens. "The campaigns are certainly important, but have only a short-term effect. What is needed is a radical change of attitude, before the diseases become resistant to our antibiotics.”

Tulkens refers to the system in the Netherlands, where three times fewer antibiotics are prescribed. "The distribution of antibiotics in the Netherlands is subject to much stricter rules. For example, a pharmacist can overrule a doctor's decision to prescribe antibiotics if he considers them unnecessary. In addition, patients in the Netherlands must first have a referral from a general physician before going to a specialist. In Belgium, it is too easy to bypass the doctor, should he refuse to prescribe antibiotics.”