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In support of European Antibiotic Awareness Day (18 November) and the first ever World Antibiotic Awareness Week (16-22 November), Public Health England (PHE) is encouraging people to join over 17,000 Antibiotic Guardians by making a pledge to fight antibiotic resistance.

To become an Antibiotic Guardian, people choose one pledge about how they can personally prevent infections and make better use of antibiotics, such as receiving a flu jab when offered one; seeking advice from their pharmacist first when their child has a respiratory tract infection; taking a course of antibiotics as prescribed and washing their hands after sneezing or coughing. 

Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope, Pharmacist Lead for the Antimicrobial Resistance programme at PHE and lead for the Antibiotic Guardian campaign, said: "Everyone can play a part in tackling antibiotic resistance; we often hear about the problem of these vital drugs becoming ineffective, but not about what actions individuals can take to help €“ this is exactly what the Antibiotic Guardian campaign provides."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is encouraging pharmacy teams to pledge to become Antibiotic Guardians, as well as encouraging their patients and customers to sign up to the scheme. To date, pharmacists are the largest single group of healthcare professionals who have signed up to protect antibiotics through the scheme, which launched last year.

At a recent multi-disciplinary meeting hosted by RB, experts agreed that a single, consistent message for the public, more education about the typical duration of cold and flu symptoms and greater collaboration between healthcare professionals are all key to the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

A survey by CIG Research presented at the meeting revealed that 61 per cent of pharmacists think that antibiotic stewardship is a high priority but that three quarters feel that pharmacies are under-utilised, while four in five (83 per cent) would like more training in this area. 

In addition, an important proportion of those surveyed agreed that they should take more of a role in providing advice to patients on why antibiotics are not effective for most respiratory tract infections (79 per cent), educate patients on self care (78 per cent), work more closely with GPs (75 per cent) and provide alternative treatment options (67 per cent).

Leyla Hannbeck, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief pharmacist, said: €Pharmacists are in a great position to educate patients on appropriate antibiotic use, provide self care advice and recommend treatment options with OTC medicines. Not only will this empower patients to take more of a self care approach, but it will also reduce patient demands on GPs for antibiotics.€