Scottish Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Humans in 2015

Please note: that two minor errors were found in the antimicrobial use analysis for the Report on Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Humans report published on 30th August 2016. These are in the calculation of two age band denominators for 2015 data and a minor inflation of the Defined Daily Doses in acute hospital antimicrobial use in 2012 and subsequent comparison to 2015 figures. These errors and subsequent revisions will not affect the overall interpretation or conclusions drawn from the previously published data. A revised publication to correct these was released on 22nd November 2016 and should be referred to instead.

This is the eighth annual report on antibiotic use and resistance in Scotland published by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and Information Services Division (ISD. The information presented covers the period to the end of 2015.

This latest report has shown that while work by the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) to improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing has proved successful, continued efforts will be required to further reduce unnecessary antibiotic use.

The report is intended to support NHS boards, hospitals and primary care in their long term planning of antimicrobial prescribing. In particular, this report should be of use to Antimicrobial Management Teams (AMTs), Infection prevention and Control Teams (ICTs) and Microbiologists.