The overuse of antibiotic creams, which should be used to treat certain skin infections, may have been the reason why a strain of the MRSA superbug has become resistant to certain treatment.

One of the most dominant strains of MRSA found in Malta became resistant to a type of antibiotic found in cream form, explained Infection Control Committee chairman Michael Borg.

Such antibiotics were meant for very specific skin infections but, Dr Borg said, he had indications that less than five per cent of antibiotic creams were being used to treat the ailments they were aimed for.

“I’ve heard of cases when such creams were used as lubrication for suppositories or to keep a wounded area moist,” he said to highlight the frivolous ways in which this prescription-only medicine was being prescribed and used.

Dr Borg was speaking at the Qormi health centre on the occasion of World Health Day that this year is themed Antimicrobial Resistance: No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow.

People have long heard that overusing antibiotics could lead to decreased resistance. What people did not realise was that this applied to antibiotic creams apart from pills and syrups, Dr Borg said.

Figures released in Parliament showed that 253 positive tests for MRSA were recorded since November. It is not clear whether these cases were contracted at Mater Dei Hospital.

Last December, it was reported that MRSA was slowly retreating from hospital. There were 28 MRSA infections in blood identified at Mater Dei in 2010, down from 31 cases in 2009.

MRSA is a type of bacteria commonly found on the skin and in the noses of healthy people. Although it is usually harmless, it may occasionally get into the body through breaks in the skin such as abrasions, cuts, wounds, surgical incisions or catheters, and cause infection.

Dr Borg said a study was under way to try to determine how many people carried MRSA.

Health Minister Joseph Cassar pointed out that, across the EU, bacteria was getting more resistant to antibiotics, the use of which was being abused. Every year 25,000 people in the EU died of infections caused my microbes resistant to antibiotics.

Dr Cassar called on people to stop putting pressure on doctors and pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics. He also called on the medical community not to prescribe antibiotics unless they were absolutely necessary.