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The issue

While the evolution of antibiotic resistance is natural and inevitable, the inappropriate use of antibiotics in both people and animals can accelerate the process. The more often bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the higher the chance that they develop resistance. That’s why it is so important that we protect the antibiotics we’ve already got and make sure that only patients who really need antibiotics get them.

No amount of antibiotics will cure a cold, and doctors shouldn’t prescribe antibiotics when they’re not necessary. The public also have a role: by not demanding antibiotics when they don’t need them. The ‘appropriate use’ of antibiotics is something that pharmaceutical companies are working with national Governments around the world to manage.

In the UK, the industry is working through Public Health England with the NHS to make sure the UK is fulfilling its commitments to protect the antibiotics we’ve already got.

The solution

We’re developing educational programmes for doctors and nurses in primary care and hospitals understand why it’s important to prescribe antibiotics appropriately. These are also aimed at undergraduates who’ll make up the future NHS workforce. Pharmaceutical companies are supporting public education programs to help people understand more about superbugs.