Educate, Advocate, Act now to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance

World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (WAAW) is 18-24 November 2024.

• Did you know antibiotic resistance remains one of the biggest threats facing us today?
• Do you know what Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is?

Antimicrobial medicines help keep us safe from illnesses caused by germs like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. When these medicines don’t work well or stop working altogether, it can be tough to treat these illnesses.

Antibiotics are essential for treating bacterial infections. However, using them too often or the wrong way in people, animals and plants can reduce their effectiveness and make it harder to cure even simple infections, even in young and healthy people.

This year’s World Health Organisation (WHO) annual campaign aims to Educate, Advocate, Act now, to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance and encourage best practice using a ‘One Health’ approach that recognises that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment. One Health is not new, but it has become more important in recent years. This is because many factors have changed interactions between people, animals, plants, and our environment.

What can schools do to help raise awareness?

• Prevent infections by regularly washing your hands – make handwashing easy (and fun!) and encourage positive conversation about this. Visit e-Bug for resources to support responsible antimicrobial behaviours both inside and outside of the classroom.
• Encourage staff and children, through conversation and leading by example, to keep healthy by drinking plenty of water, eating well and exercising or using active travel (walking or cycling to school).
• Encourage staff and parents to stay up to date with routine and travel vaccinations.
• For infections like coughs, colds, sore throats and flu, which our bodies are good at fighting off on their own, it’s good to talk to a pharmacist about how to treat the symptoms first, rather than requesting antibiotics.
• Remind staff and parents to only take antibiotics when and as prescribed and for the duration detailed, and never use leftover antibiotics – never share antibiotics with others – and return any unused drugs to the pharmacy, always making sure medications are taken as prescribed.  Releases from unused drugs disposed of in toilets, bins or waste dumps contribute to exacerbating AMR.

Write your own pledge and become an Antibiotic Guardian.

Shared on behalf of PARG – Peninsula Antimcrobial Resisitance Group.