Dubbed a wonder drug in the 1940s, antibiotics' superpowers may be waning as international research finds that excessive use could be related to an increased risk of cancer.
This study, published in the reputed International Journal of Cancer, comes fresh in the wake of a local drive to raise people's sensitivity to the abuse of antibiotics and an EU campaign on the better use of this drug.
The researchers studied more than three million subjects in Finland and discovered that the level of antibiotic use was found to be related to the risk of getting cancer.
The hypothesis that the use of antibiotics may increase the risk of cancer was first proposed several decades ago. However, biological and epidemiological studies of this association were limited then.
Now, researchers reported that individuals with the highest exposure to antibiotics also had the highest rates of cancers, including the more common types such as breast cancer in women, prostate in men as well as the lungs and the intestine in both sexes.
Asked to comment on this research, National Antibiotic Committee chairman Michael Borg emphasised that such results should be interpreted broadly.
"The study in question did not include information on other risk factors for these types of cancers such as smoking, diet and hereditary factors," he said.
It was therefore impossible to identify whether the use of antibiotics and its apparent relationship to an increased cancer risk was directly related or coincidental, he added.
Dr Borg cited the example of smoking, which was documented to increase the risk of lung cancer, and in turn increased the likelihood for chest infections that required antibiotics.
It was essential, he said, that people did not interpret this study to mean that antibiotics should not be used when they were required. Nevertheless, it emphasised the need for healthcare professionals and the public to be more conscious that antibiotics had to be used judiciously.
Over five per cent of Maltese with a sore throat prescribe themselves antibiotics without consulting a physician, placing the island fifth among 19 European countries surveyed on the subject of self-medication.
According to a recent research paper, antimicrobial drugs are still greatly sought as a cure in Malta, especially for throat symptoms, and the island has the third highest rate (42.2 per cent) of antibiotic prescriptions. With this in mind the committee last month spearheaded a national campaign which aimed to get his message across.
Dr Borg said initial public feedback suggested that people were taking note and the majority of those interviewed at the end of the campaign said they had heard or seen something about it in the media or on the billboards.
Dr Borg, who has recently successfully defended a PhD dissertation on antibiotic resistance in the Mediterranean, said his study identified many similarities and cultural characteristics within these countries. His findings indicate that throughout the region, microbes are becoming resistant to many antibiotics, which therefore render them ineffective.
"We must move away from our current quick fix mentality where people put pressure on doctors or pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics for a trivial viral infection, or worse, self-medicating with antibiotics.