Transcript

MAGGIE

When you take into account farm use, GPs, and hospitals, it's estimated that 2/3 of antibiotic use is either highly questionable or totally unnecessary. And that's a tragic waste. So the most recent developments are in methods to cut down that waste, and that could ultimately save many lives. One of those methods is being introduced here at the Royal Hampshire hospital.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

Hello, Mrs. Preston.

MRS PRESTON

Hello.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

I'm Dr Dryden. We've popped by today to see how you are. Can you tell us what brought you into hospital?

MRS PRESTON

Yeah, I have difficulty breathing. I get very, very breathless.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

One of the reasons we've come along as the infection team is to try and decide if you need any antibiotics.

MRS PRESTON

I see, yes.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

We've got a special blood test, which is a relatively new development, which can distinguish between bacterial infection and viral infection or no infection at all. So I think we will do that on your samples, which will help us make a decision as to whether you need antibiotics or not.

MRS PRESTON

Right. Right. Okey doke.

MAGGIE

Yeah, yeah, lovely to have met you. Cheers.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

Maggie, this is the virology and immunology lab. This is the lab that we would bring Gloria's blood to. Downstairs, Gloria's blood is being cultured. Now, the interesting thing is that the blood cultures are going to take up to five days to grow bacteria. They may come up in 24 hours if we're lucky, if they're there. But this test we can do in two hours, which helps us decide whether she's got a bacterial infection or not, and whether we have to give her antibiotics.

MAGGIE

The test is looking for levels of a blood protein called procalcitonin, which rises during a bacterial infection, but not during a viral infection.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

This is a machine that does procalcitonin tests. And we've got a result coming out here now. So here's the readout for the test. And it gives us a very accurate representation of the procalcitonin concentration in the blood. It is less than 0.05. And that indicates, for this particular patient, there's no necessity to get antibiotics now.

MAGGIE

Dr Dryden closely monitors patients like Mrs Preston to make sure not giving them antibiotics is the right decision. And since introducing the system, this unit has cut down antibiotic use by half.

DR MATTHEW DRYDEN

To have a test like procalcitonin, which enables us with our clinical diagnosis to be sure that the patient has or has not got a bacterial infection is really useful.

MAGGIE

It's only being used in a handful of places so far. But the ultimate goal is to make this test economical enough to use in GP surgeries where 80% of antibiotics are prescribed.