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News • What's in the bag
Antibiotics in travel luggage: a gateway to building resistance?
Antibiotics brought into the country by air travellers may be a bigger problem than previously thought. This is shown in a study conducted by researchers from Linköping University and other institutions at three airports in Sweden and Norway.
According to the researchers, there is a risk that the use of these antibiotics contributes to the development of resistant bacteria. The results are published in the journal Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control.
Bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are a global threat to public health. In Sweden and Scandinavia, the healthcare system therefore seeks to limit the use of antibiotics, and all antibiotics prescribed are registered. At the same time, customs officials have raised concerns about unknown quantities of antibiotics being brought legally into the country through airports. This is because travellers are permitted to bring medicines for their own use for a limited period. These antibiotics do not appear in the statistics.
Image source: Linköping University
To get an idea of the quantities involved, the researchers conducted a study in collaboration with customs authorities at Arlanda and Landvetter airports in Sweden and Gardermoen Airport in Norway. Over a period of five days, 406 passengers were checked. Of these, 14% were found to have antibiotics in their luggage. The sample was not random; travellers were selected by customs officials in accordance with their usual procedures. The researchers were surprised that so many of the travellers checked were carrying antibiotics.
“At the very least, we can’t say that this is not a problem. It’s something that needs to be looked into more closely,” says associate professor Anna Moberg at LiU, who led the study.
There were major differences depending on where the travellers came from. Among the travellers checked who came from the European Economic Area (EEA), comprising the EU countries, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, 3% were carrying antibiotics. For travellers checked who came from Asia, the figure was 27%. More than a third of the antibiotics found belonged to groups that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers to carry a higher risk of contributing to the development of resistant bacteria.
Although the travellers were not selected at random, the results indicate that significant quantities may be brought into the country through airports, according to the researchers. “If these results were to apply to all international travellers, and they actually use the antibiotics, this could have a tangible impact on the development of resistance,” says Anna Moberg.
She thinks that stricter regulations may be needed. At present, travellers are permitted to bring antibiotics for up to 12 months’ personal use from another EEA country. For travellers from other countries, the limit is three months. However, according to Anna Moberg, very few medical conditions require antibiotic treatment for such a long period. At least as important, she says, is raising public awareness about the risks of excessive antibiotic use.
The study is a collaboration between the universities of Gothenburg, Linköping, Lund, Oslo and Uppsala, as well as Skåne University Hospital, Region Jönköping County, Region Västra Götaland and Region Östergötland.
Source: Linköping University
26.10.2026
