Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development today. To remind us that antibiotics are a precious resource that we cannot afford to lose, the World Antibiotic Awareness Week is celebrated annually with this year’s theme being “Seek advice from a qualified healthcare professional before taking antibiotics“. During the week, WHO will also launch a year-long campaign called “Stop overuse and misuse of antibiotics – combat resistance”.
Through-out the week WHO is partnering with numerous countries and their respective ministries of health around the Pacific to organize a number of events targeting health-professionals (general physicians, hospital doctors, pharmacists, nurses, veterinarians), policy makers, media and the general public. These events aim to motivate health professionals to prescribe and dispense antibiotics more appropriately and to educate, inform and engage patients, consumers and health professionals about the responsible use of antibiotics and to reduce self-medication and/or expectation of prescription for antibiotics for common viral infections (colds, flu, sore throats). Finally the campaign aims to educate, inform and engage patients, consumers and healthcare professionals about risks and consequences of antibiotic resistance and the importance of preventing resistance to antibiotics.
The Race to Million Pledges campaign is a campaign designed for everyone to join in. It calls on everyone to prevent antibiotic resistance by stopping the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and by reducing the spread of infections to reduce the need of antibiotics. This web-based campaign will be launched today, on the 13th of November, to capture pledges from countries across the WHO Western Pacific Region. Pledges will be registered in real-time and counts will be displayed per country.
The key messages for the region are:
- Misuse of antibiotics only causes bacteria to become resistant to antibiotic treatments
- We all have a role to play in preserving the miracle of our antibiotics for the present and the future.
- Antibiotic Resistance is not a problem for the future; it is a concern of TODAY!
The world urgently needs to change the way it prescribes and uses antibiotics. Even if new medicines are developed, without behaviour change, antibiotic resistance will remain a major threat. Behaviour changes must also include actions to reduce the spread of infections through vaccination, hand washing, practising safer sex, and good food hygiene. Without urgent action, we are heading for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can once again kill. However, this doesn’t need to be the case, as steps can be taken at all levels of society to reduce the impact and limit the spread of resistance.