World Antibiotics Awareness Week 2017

November 2017 – World Antibiotics Awareness Week will be observed from 13 to 19 November 2017, with the year of this year’s campaign “Seek advice from a qualified health care professional before taking antibiotics”. The aim is to advocate for the proper and responsible use of antibiotics to prevent their misuse. It is important to seek the correct medical advice before taking antibiotics, not only to ensure that you receive the appropriate treatment, but because responsible use of antibiotics will also help reduce the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarial) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others. The use and misuse of antibiotics has increased the number and types of resistant organisms. Consequently, many infectious diseases may one day become untreatable. This situation has grave consequences for both health and the economy. Every year in the Region, around 750 000 people die as a result of infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics. This number is expected to dramatically increase in the coming years.  Antimicrobial resistance poses a huge threat to global health ‒ both to human and animal health ‒ especially as studies indicate that few new antibiotics Read more...
Source: WHO EMRO News - Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news