Antibiotic resistance is a global crisis, but it’s one we can all do something about.
Everyone:
If you’re a teacher or principal:
If you work in agriculture:
If you’re a politician or have influence on policy:
Everyone:
- Take antibiotics correctly
- Only use antibiotics for bacterial illnesses — so not the cold or flu. So don’t ask your doctor for antibiotics for a viral or fungal illness.
- If you’re prescribed antibiotics, take them for as long as prescribed instead of stopping when you feel better.
- Don’t use leftover antibiotics or someone else’s — they could be the wrong ones (read more about why that contributes to resistance here).
- Don’t skip doses
- Use good hygiene
- Get your vaccinations
- Try other ways of making mild symptoms go away e.g. rest, water
- Tell your friends what you’re doing about this and why
- Vote for science-friendly policies and to help fund science
- Spread the message — fill in this form to become an Ambassador for Spotlight ABR
- Avoid buying from places that use antibiotic-fed meat
If you’re a teacher or principal:
- See where you can integrate information on public health into the curriculum – it’s important, and it’s a great way to show students how useful science is.
- Book a workshop on antibiotic resistance for your school (Irish primary or secondary) here.
If you work in agriculture:
- Avoid giving antibiotics to healthy animals or allowing them to leak into water supplies
- If you can influence supply for your company, avoid buying meat from farmers who overuse antibiotics (read here how McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s are phasing out using antibiotic-fed animals)
If you’re a politician or have influence on policy:
- Make sure your area has a plan for tackling antibiotic resistance
- Fund scientists to find ways of tackling resistance, new antibiotics and alternatives to antibiotics, and better diagnostics so we can tell quickly who needs an antibiotic and who doesn’t
- Work to ban over-the-counter antibiotics (as India recently did)
- Promote vaccination programmes
- Good sanitation, clean water and preventing overcrowding are important for slowing the spread of antibiotic resistance