Antibiotic creams used too much in Italy between do-it-yourself and improper prescriptions when the specialist should only prescribe a local antiseptic even in gauze or plasters. This is the complaint from the Italian Society of Medical, Surgical, Aesthetic Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (SIDeMaST), which in a study by a pool of experts drew up a document of recommendations. The data confirm the situation of abuse: every year in Italy over 278 million doses are used (of which over 168 million of gentamicin alone), with an increase of one third in antibiotic-resistant skin infections. “The massive and improper use of local antibiotic therapy even for superficial skin infections, which affect millions of Italians every year, is ineffective, because minor wounds and burns are contaminated by a multiplicity of microorganisms refractory to the specific action of the antibiotic, furthermore reduces by a third the sensitivity to the most commonly used antibiotics such as, for example, gentamicin – explains Giuseppe Argenziano, president of SIDeMaST and director of the Dermatology Clinic of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” in Naples -. Strains of Staphylococcus aureus, the bacterium involved in 40% of cases of bacterial skin infections, have shown an increasing rate of resistance to the most used topical antibiotics, in particular to gentamicin. Data collected from 105 hospitals on over 148 thousand samples of Staphylococcus aureus from patients with skin infections show. a high bacterial resistance to gentamicin, with sensitivity to the drug in only 98 strains out of 299″.
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