A TOP doctor has warned of a ‘growing threat’ that overuse of antibiotics in County Durham could compromise the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.

New figures have shown antibiotics were prescribed at a rate of 144 per 1,000 patients per quarter in North Durham last year. And in the rest of the county it was even higher at 154, compared to the English average of 119.

According to a report for bosses at Durham County Council, continued high use could see common medicines become ‘ineffective’.

“There’s a balance between GPs being told don’t give antibiotics out, but then they also need to treat people,” health protection consultant Dr Deborah Wilson told the council's Health and Wellbeing Board on Wednesday.

She said: “It’s not always a clear line and I have sympathy for the GPs. It’s about educating the public so people realise antimicrobial resistance is real and that antibiotics are not a good thing – I would avoid them at all costs if I didn’t have to take them.”

NHS guidelines state that about a tenth of people prescribed antibiotics will experience side effects vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea or stomach pain.

And a further one in 15 could suffer an allergic reaction, which in the most severe cases could cause anaphylactic shock.

But while reduced use of antibiotics generally is a priority for doctors, it is being driven by a fear common conditions could become almost impossible to treat.

The report for councillors said: “A wide range of factors, including indiscriminate use of antibiotics in medicine and wider society over many years, mean that antimicrobial resistance is now reaching a critical point.

“This means that medicines may become ineffective and increases the risk of bacterial infections spreading to others.”

It added: “With reduced ability to prevent and treat bacterial threats, people are likely to experience more illness and have a higher risk of disability and death from previously treatable illness.

“For example, interventions such as surgery, transplant and cancer chemotherapy are compromised without effective antibiotics to prevent infections.”