Antibiotic use for respiratory tract infections and other stories . . .

Ever since antibiotics first came on the scene, GPs have been blamed for overusing them. Sweden has highly conservative guidelines, which recommend the oldest form of oral penicillin—phenoxymethylpenicillin—as the first line antibiotic for acute otitis media, sinusitis, tonsillitis, and pneumonia. No antibiotic treatment is recommended for acute bronchitis. In a survey of all GPs in Jönköping County, most followed national guidelines on choice of antibiotics when treating respiratory tract infections in children but to a lesser degree when treating adults. Older GPs were most likely to be disobedient (BMJ Open 2015;5:e008096, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008096).

Australia launched its national programme of quadrivalent human papillomavirus (4vHPV) vaccination in April 2007. To assess its effectiveness in high risk young women, the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre did a survey of HPV in samples from 1202 women diagnosed as having chlamydia infection from 2004 to 2014 (Lancet Infectious Diseases 2015, …