Antibiotics 'could lead to drug resistance'

War on Terrorism: Treatment

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics to combat the threat of anthrax could lead to drug resistance and a risk of severe side-effects, doctors have warned.

Resistance to ciprofloxacin, the most common antibiotic used to treat anthrax, has already been seen in other microbes that infect humans, the doctors say in the British Medical Journal. Anthony Hart, a professor of medical microbiology, and Nicholas Beeching, senior lecturer in tropical medicine at Liverpool University, also warned ciprofloxacin is linked with ruptured tendons and neuropsychiatric disorders.

"Unofficial use of ciprofloxacin will be common in the light of the worldwide panic ... The important thing is to ensure prophylactic treatment is given only to those who really need it and to discourage its mass use," they said. "Indiscriminate use of antibiotics can induce resistance to Bacillus anthracis and other organisms. To induce antimicrobial resistance on a mass scale would be an even greater triumph for terrorists."

More than 10,000 Americans have taken ciprofloxacin because of the anthrax scare and the British Government is talking to Bayer, the manufacturers, about stocking up in case there is a terrorist attack here.