Today is European antibiotic awareness day – become an Antibiotic Guardian

Today is European Antibiotic Awareness Day. This is an annual European public health initiative  to raise awareness about the threat to public health of antibiotic resistance and the importance of careful antibiotic use.

This week many pharmacy teams across the country are reminding themselves what they can do to keep antibiotics working effectively. There are also things that you can do to help, this post tells you more about this.

Why is this important?

This is important to all of us because without effective antibiotics many routine treatments will become increasingly dangerous. Setting broken bones, basic operations, even chemotherapy and animal health all rely on access to antibiotics that work.

The Antibiotic Guardian programme  aims to slow resistance by cutting the unnecessary use of antibiotics. They invite the public, students and educators, farmers, the veterinary and medical communities and professional organisations, to become Antibiotic Guardians.

You can make a difference

The Antibiotic Guardian programme lists ways in which we can all make a difference. For example we can make the following pledges:

• Adults know that our bodies are good at fighting off infections on their own, like coughs colds sore throats and flu. They can pledge to talk to their pharmacist about how to treat the symptoms first rather than going to the GP
• Families can visit the ebug website with children and take one of the antibiotic awareness quizzes together
• Farmers can help reduce the need for antibiotics. They can pledge to work with their veterinary surgeon to keep an up to date Animal Health Plan. This will include, if necessary, changes to farm practices such as biosecurity
• Pet owners can help reduce the risk of their animal(s) getting an infection which requires antibiotic treatment, they can pledge to keep them healthy through exercise, good nutrition, relevant vaccination, suitable accommodation and by having regular veterinary health checks

What we are doing

In addition to the above pledges our staff will:

• Check that antibiotic prescriptions comply with local guidance and query those that do not.
• Let you know when you are unlikely to benefit from taking antibiotics. For example, if you have a viral infection, you may already feel terrible. Antibiotics will not help your symptoms and could give you side-effects like stomach upsets and diarrhoea.
• Encourage people to return unused antibiotics to the pharmacy.
• We will post key messages on our website and on local media and, where available, we will display leaflets in our pharmacies.
• Use patient information leaflets to explain the potential duration of an illness for people with self limiting illnesses, they will explain how to treat and relieve symptoms.

So if you are unsure if you need antibiotics, come into one of our pharmacies for advice. We are always happy to accept unused antibiotics.