World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2019

The 18th – 24th November 2019 is World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW).

Since their discovery, antibiotics have served as the cornerstone of modern medicine. However, the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human and animal health have encouraged the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of bacteria and other microbes to develop resistance to antimicrobials, rendering infections more difficult and in some rare instances, impossible to treat. This is recognised as a global public health threat and is compounded by the current lack of new antibiotics.

From a global perspective:

• by 2050 the deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance could be as high as 10 million a year
• a failure to address antibiotic resistance may cost £66 trillion in lost productivity to the global economy
• experts predict that in just over 30 years antibiotic resistance could kill more people worldwide than cancer and diabetes combined.

AMR and International Travel

It is widely recognised that international travel plays a major role in the global spread of AMR. People travelling to regions with a high prevalence of resistant bacteria are more likely to acquire a drug resistant infection themselves, and to spread it to others when they return home.

Antibiotic resistance is one of this generation’s greatest problems, but we can make a difference if we take action now!

Health care practitioners and the public need to work together to tackle this issue and the public should only take antibiotics on the advice of their healthcare professional.

WAAW aims to increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance by:

• encouraging best practices among health care professionals
• encouraging best practices general public
• encouraging and policy makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.

Please see the following links for details on campaigns, promotional materials and details about how you can become an antibiotic guardian:

Keep antibiotics working by becoming an Antibiotic Guardian                          

World Health Organisation WAAW Campaign  

European Antibiotic Awareness Day 18^th November 2019  

Other Resources:

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has published the third annual ‘Scottish One Health Antimicrobial Use and Antimicrobial Resistance (SONAAR)’ report