IPHA marks the 2nd European Antibiotic Awareness Day
Today marks the 2nd European Antibiotic Awareness Day. A European health initiaitve with the objective of raising awareness among the general public about correct antibiotic use.
The rise of antibiotic resistance is linked directly to the inappropriate use of antibiotics, which has become a serious threat to public health in Europe. Prudent antibiotic use is critically important as antibiotic over-use unnecessarily causes bacteria to become resistant to antibiotic treatments. Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections and cannot help the recovery process from common colds and flu, which are the result of viral infections.
This year's European Antibiotic Awareness Day focuses on the role of primary care prescribers in promoting the appropriate use of antibiotics in outpatients, with particular attention on respiratory tract infections such as common colds and flu. The correct diagnosis and the decision about whether antibiotics are necessary can only be made by a medical doctor.
The healthcare sector in Ireland is working to reduce unnecessary antibiotic consumption by the healthcare sector and results of a recent study (Outpatient antibiotic use in Ireland in the first half of 2009
) carried out by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show that antibiotic use for the first half of 2009 fell by 12.6%.
European Antibiotic Awareness Day Factsheet (0.19 MB, Adobe PDF)
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