BMJ
Given the part that antibiotics have played in fostering the emergence of resistant strains, it comes as something of a disappointment to learn that strict policies to limit their use are not enough to reverse the trend. Once MRSA has gained a foothold, there is, it seems, little correlation between its prevalence and the parsimonious use of antibiotics. Finland, the United Kingdom, and Italy all consume roughly the same amounts of these drugs, but they have big differences in the proportion of methicillin resistant isolates.
In short, while antibiotics do give the golden genie a selective advantage over its susceptible brethren once it has escaped its bottle, squeezing it back from whence it came depends principally on sustained efforts at preventing transmission. When it comes to regular hand washing, at least one survey has suggested that doctors are more blameworthy than nurses.
