Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) resistance and antibiotic use in patients attending Australian general practice.

Background/objectives: Antibiotic resistance in the community, including transfer between bacteria, is a growing concern for clinicians. Acne is commonly treated in general practice, sometimes with antibiotics. The aim of this study is to measure the rate of carriage of antibiotic resistant Propionibacterium acnes 10 years apart in general practice and the relationship of resistance to type of treatment, as well potential effects on other flora.

Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis at the time of routine Pap smear in general practice: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether asking general practitioners to offer chlamydia screening at the same time as Pap screening increases chlamydia screening rates.

Design: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial.

Participants And Setting: Doctors from 31 general practices in the Australian Capital Territory performing more than 15 Pap smear screens per year, and all women aged 16-39 years attending those practitioners between 1 November 2004 and 31 October 2005.

Trends in medication use for asthma in school-entry children in the Australian Capital Territory, 2000-2005.

Objective: To analyse trends in asthma medications used by school-entry children whose parents report they have asthma.

Design And Setting: Annual cross-sectional study of all school-entry children (about 4400 each year) in the Australian Capital Territory in 2000-2005, by means of a questionnaire for parents on child health status and medication use; and a cross-sectional study of asthma prescriptions for children aged 5 years obtained from the Medicare Australia database for 2002-2005.

Participants: All school-entry children in the ACT with parent-reported asthma (numbers in the years 2000-2005 ranged between 435 and 589).

Screening for chlamydia with the Pap test.

The implementation of the recent National Health and Medical Research Council Guidelines for the management of asymptomatic women with screen detected abnormalities is welcome and should address the current practice of unnecessary repeated investigation of young women infected with human papilloma virus (HPV). It is timely to consider the overall benefit of the Pap test in this group for whom rates of cervical cancer are extremely low.