Is There a Resistance Threshold for Macrolide Consumption? Positive Evidence from an Ecological Analysis of Resistance Data from Streptococcus pneumoniae, Treponema pallidum, and Mycoplasma genitalium

If we were to keep macrolide consumption below a certain threshold, would this reduce the probability of macrolide resistance emerging? No study that we are aware of has addressed this question. We, therefore, assessed at a country level if there was a macrolide consumption threshold for the selection of a prevalence of macrolide resistance of over 5% in Streptococcus pneumoniae , Treponema pallidum , and Mycoplasma genitalium . In this ecological-level analysis, we found evidence for a macrolide consumption threshold of 1.3 defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day (DID) for M. genitalium , 1.8 DID for T. pallidum , and 2.3 DID for S. pneumoniae . Our results provide further motivation for macrolide stewardship campaigns that strive to reduce macrolide consumption to levels below at least 2 DID.