Lateral flow swabs for superbugs are needed, say experts

A Covid-style test for patients with sore throats is needed to help fight the growing issue of antibiotic resistant superbugs, experts have said.

A lateral flow test available at GP surgeries could stop the over-prescription of antibiotics, which adds to the growth of anti-microbial resistance, leading to the emergence of superbugs.

The vast majority of patients who go to their GP with a cold or sore throat will have caught a virus but there is no easy way to tell if an infection is viral or bacterial and, as a result, antibiotics are prescribed even when not necessary.

Lord O’neill, the economist behind a 2016 review of anti-microbial resistance, is now calling for GP surgeries to have access to tests. “It seems to me slightly mad that, as brilliant as doctors are, they guess whether somebody wants an antibiotic in the first place, and then what kind of antibiotic,” he said.

Prof Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, added: “It’s much easier in your 10 minutes to sign a prescription than to argue that a patient does not need antibiotics.”