Stop asking for antibiotics, NHS urges in new campaign
NHS patients will be urged to stop asking GPS for antibiotics in the first ever television campaign to prevent a bacterial “apocalypse”.
Around 5,000 people in England die each year because antibiotics have become resistant to some infections. Experts predict resistance will kill more people than cancer and diabetes combined within 30 years.
Today Public Health England (PHE) launches its “Keep Antibiotics Working” campaign, warning patients that taking drugs when they are not needed puts them at risk of a more severe or longer infections. Instead, they urge people to rest and take paracetamol.
Professor Paul Cosford, medical director at PHE, said: “Antibiotic resistance is not a distant threat, but is in fact one of the most dangerous global crises facing the modern world today.
“Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts you and your family at risk of developing infections which in turn cannot be easily treated with antibiotics. Without urgent action from all of us, common infections, minor injuries and routine operations will become much riskier.” The new advert features cartoon antibiotics singing: “Every time you feel a bit under the weather, don’t always think that we can make you better.”
Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer, recently warned of an “antibiotic resistance apocalypse” which could end modern medicine, and make surgery, chemotherapy and caesareans too dangerous to carry out.
Dame Sally has previously described the threatened loss of antibiotics as on a par with terrorism and climate change. She said: “Reducing inappropriate use of antibiotics can help us stay ahead of superbugs. The public has a critical role to play.”