There is better on the antibiotics front. While their consumption still remains 30% higher than the European average, placing France 4th in the continent, it still drops in city medicine, which accounts for 93% of prescriptions. These are the conclusions of the Public Health Report on Monday, the European Day of Information on Antibiotics.
Decrease of 15% in ten years
City doctors are starting to integrate the message: antibiotics are not automatic for viral infections such as the flu, rhino-pharyngitis or some angina. In ten years, prescriptions for antibiotics have dropped by 15%, especially for children under five. The health authorities estimate that consumption has increased over this period from 2.81 doses to 2.38 doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day. But there is still work to be done to catch up with the Netherlands, Europe's best performing country, which consumes three times less antibiotics. With 25.3 doses per 1,000 inhabitants, and per day, France remains one of the worst students on the continent.
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Still encouraging, the most prescribed antibiotics, such as Amoxicillin, are also the ones that generate the least resistance. Moreover, Escherichia coli, a "very common germ" causing many urinary tract infections since 2016, loses its vigor against certain antibiotics. "It's a positive message," says Anne Berger Carbonne, a doctor at Public Health France. Because since antibiotics exist, "it has acquired resistance over the decades", especially in the face of "third generation cephalosporins, which is very worrying". In the Ehpad, the trend is similar. Older people contract less antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli, which is good news too.