Antimicrobials: Drug Resistance

(asked on 22nd May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase public awareness of antimicrobial resistance.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 4th June 2018

Public Health England (PHE) has developed a number of initiatives which support the Government’s ambition to halve inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics by 2020.

PHE launched a major new national campaign, ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’, in October 2017 following a successful pilot in the North West, to alert the general public to the issue of antibiotic resistance, with the aim of reducing patient pressure on general practitioners to prescribe. The mass-media campaign targets all adults with a focus on groups most likely to use antibiotics: older adults and women aged 20-45 years old, who typically have primary responsibility for family health as younger children are heavy users of antibiotics. The campaign is advertised through a numbers of mediums including television, radio and social media. There is also extensive partner support from health care professionals and local authorities in local communities.

The United Kingdom-wide Antibiotic Guardian campaign, now in its fourth year, aims to stimulate behaviour change and increase engagement to tackle antimicrobial resistance by healthcare professionals and engaged members of the public.

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