It is really important that our organisation leads the way as antibiotic prescribers and works with GP surgeries and dentists in the local area to ensure that antibiotics are only prescribed when really needed so that these antibiotics will continue to work where and when we need to use them.
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The team set up an information stand in the hospital reception area with information, quizzes and a competition, created to get clinical staff and patients thinking about how antibiotics should be used. “It is driven by overusing antibiotics and prescribing them inappropriately”.
“The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis”. Without it, a few procedures that are now routine in health care may be too risky to undertake, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s special representative for antimicrobial resistance. “But whether such measures will end up significantly reducing antibiotic use remains to be seen”, Gail Hansen, a veterinarian who has more than 25 years of experience in veterinary public health and infectious disease, told Consumer Reports. The fund would guarantee a return on private companies’ investment if they produced an antibiotic that filled an unmet need. “The best meat and poultry practices ban the use of all antibiotics and other drugs in healthy animals for growth promotion and disease prevention”, Rangan said. “Close to one third (32%) of people surveyed believe they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better, rather than completing the prescribed course of treatment”, World Health Organization further revealed.
Bacteria such as Klebsiella, which causes pneumonia and blood infections, could become resistant to treatment as a result.
How many stories have you heard lately about a family member or friend who was on antibiotics that didn’t work? Three-quarters (76%) of respondents incorrectly thought antibiotic resistance happens when the body (not bacteria) becomes resistant to antibiotics.
Antibiotic resistance – where bacteria adapt and mutate to endure the antibiotics used to treat them – is believed to originate from the overuse and abuse of the drugs, worsening the development of so-called superbugs.
Pet owners are also being asked not to re-use antibiotics used for earlier illnesses, or to swap them between different animals.
“The PHA and HSCB have developed a short YouTube video explaining the importance of antibiotics and provides simple steps to follow to preserve these valuable medicines which I would recommend viewing”. Misuse of antibiotics in livestock, aquaculture and crops is a key factor contributing to antibiotic resistance and its spread into the environment, food chain and humans.
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“If MCR-1 becomes global – which is a case of “when” not “if” – and the gene aligns itself with other antibiotic resistance genes, which is inevitable, then we will have very likely reached the start of the post-antibiotic era”, he said.
