Take antibiotics seriously this World Antimicrobial Awareness Week

Posted on Nov 24, 2022

[ Excerpt – read full article here ]

The NHS in West Yorkshire will be joining health organisations around the world to raise awareness of the global problem of antibiotic resistance and to encourage people to pledge to tackle it.

According to the World Health Organisation, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest threats to global health. Drug-resistant infections killed 1.25 million people in the world in 2019, including 141,000 patients in high income countries like the UK. This is estimated to rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if we don’t act now.

Antibiotics kill bacteria or prevent them from spreading, but because bacteria are adapting to survive them, these medicines are becoming less effective. If antibiotics stop working to treat infections, this might stop us from carrying out common healthcare activities such as doing major operations or giving cancer treatments where infections are common, and we need effective antibiotics to prevent them. We may see more premature babies, children and adults on intensive care dying from infections.

That’s why healthcare professionals across the region are supporting Seriously Resistant (www.seriouslyresistant.com), a campaign originally developed in Leeds that aims to raise awareness of antibiotic resistance and educate people how they can help to keep antibiotics working.

“You can pledge to make better use of antibiotics and help save these vital medicines from becoming obsolete by becoming an Antibiotic Guardian – antibioticguardian.com/”

“To find out what you, your family and friends can do to help tackle antibiotic resistance and to help keep antibiotics working, please also visit www.seriouslyresistant.com”