Hospital use of antibiotics varies threefold across Europe

The use of antibiotics in hospitals varies threefold across Europe, a survey of 15 countries has found.

Use of antibiotics was highest in France and Finland and lowest in Norway and Sweden, say the authors, who describe the study as the first cross national retrospective comparison of antibiotic use in hospital care in Europe.

“There are huge cross national variations in extent and distribution of exposure to antibiotics in the hospital care sector of these 15 countries,” say the authors, writing in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (12 May 2006, doi:10.1093/jac/dkl147). …