UK health agency concerned with antibiotic resistance

LONDON The United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency has said that efforts to address antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus had been successful, but health officials also face threats from other bacteria.

The agency has warned the National Health Service against overuse of antibiotics while suggesting the pharmaceutical industry do research to develop new drugs as 12 percent of E. coli infections in the U.K. were becoming resistant to antibiotics.

The HPA said that development of antibiotics to treat the bacteria family to which E. coli belongs, called Gram-negative bacteria, had lagged compared to antibiotics against Gram-positive bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureas.