Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 24 May 2016.
The Member’s right to point out a significant issue in the Cardiff east cluster. I can say that the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group has published further detailed information in relation to the prescribing of medicines for respiratory illnesses to support clusters in identifying and addressing variation in prescribing behaviours. We are a long way away from the days when antibiotics were prescribed as a matter of course, because we know it doesn’t harm the individual but it harms herd immunity, if I can put it that way. There are some illnesses—. Tuberculosis in my grandparents’ generation was a real killer. It was believed that with Streptomycin, TB would no longer be an issue for us, yet we know that it appears that there are now strains of TB that are becoming resistant to the drugs that we have. That’s a natural process in the world of microbiology, and it’s hugely important that we make sure that research is still carried out across the world to combat that resistance before it becomes so bad that it claims the lives of many people.