Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts you and your family at risk. To help keep antibiotics working you are urged to always take your doctor or nurse’s advice on antibiotics.
The national campaign ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’ is highlighting that taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts you and your family at risk. To help keep antibiotics working you are urged to always take your doctor or nurse’s advice on antibiotics.
Overuse and misuse of antibiotics is creating antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria against which none of our current antibiotics work.
Antimicrobial Resistance. Risks at Home
- Over three million surgical operations and cancer treatments a year could become life
threatening without antibiotics. - Despite the clear risks of antibiotic resistance, antibiotics are still being used unnecessarily, jeopardising their use in critical procedures. We have seen improvements in prescribing over the last five years.
- Antibiotic resistant bloodstream infections continue to rise in England, with a 35% increase from 2013 to 2017.
- However bloodstream infections have continued to rise: microbiology laboratories are detecting increased numbers of bacteria with resistance in key bug to drug combinations between 2016 and 2017.
- After antibiotic treatment for a urinary tract infection children have 13 times the odds of having a drug resistant strain if they get a subsequent urinary infection in the next 6 months.
- After antibiotic treatment for a urinary tract infection or respiratory tract infection adults have up to 3 times the odds of a drug resistant infection if they have another infection in subsequent months. This effect peaks at one month.
Further Information
- Antibiotic overuse and resistance NHS website
- Antibiotic resistance World Health Organisation website
Information Video
Preventing Antibiotic Resistance
To download the poster click here
