EMA’s safety committee, PRAC, is reminding healthcare professionals that the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, given by mouth, injection or inhalation, is restricted due to the risk of disabling, long-lasting and potentially irreversible side effects.

These restrictions were introduced in 2019 following an EU-wide review of these very rare, but serious side effects. An EMA funded study¹ has shown that although the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics has reduced, these medicines may still be prescribed outside of their recommended uses.

Restrictions on the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics mean that they should not be used:

• to treat infections that might get better without treatment or are not severe (such as throat infections);
• to treat non-bacterial infections, e.g., non-bacterial (chronic) prostatitis;
• for preventing traveller’s diarrhoea or recurring lower urinary tract infections (urine infections that do not extend beyond the bladder);
• to treat mild or moderate…