Fewer than one in five antimicrobial scripts written in aged care homes are appropriate based on the patient’s symptoms, a national surveillance report on antimicrobial resistance suggests.

The Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia (AURA) includes the results of a single-day survey at 292 aged care homes, mostly in Victoria, finding that 9% of patients were on antimicrobials.

However, based on their notes, fewer than half the patients had displayed symptoms of potential infection in the previous week.

Of those with symptoms, 18% were appropriate for treatments with anti­microbials according to internationally accepted criteria.