Help us tackle the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts you and your family at risk.
Antibiotics are essential to treat serious bacterial infections but they are frequently being used to treat illnesses, such as coughs, earache and sore throats that can get better by themselves.
Taking antibiotics encourages harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means that antibiotics may not work when you really need them.
As antibiotic resistance increases common procedures such as caesarean sections and hip
replacements could become life-threatening without antibiotics to ward off infections. Cancer
patients are also much more vulnerable if antibiotics don’t work; both cancer and the treatment
(chemotherapy) reduce the ability of the immune system to fight infections and antibiotics are
critical to both prevent and treat infections in these patients.
We are supporting the campaign here in Leicester, encouraging health professionals and the public to be aware of how to use antibiotics in a responsible way and to take action to halt their over-use.
The ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’ campaign reminds you that taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts you and your family at risk. It’s important that, when it comes to antibiotics, you always take your doctor, nurse or healthcare professional’s advice. For further information on antibiotic resistance visit nhs.uk/antibiotics
Please do not put pressure on your GP to prescribe antibiotics; allow them to make the decision as to what treatment is best for your condition and play your part in helping to slow down the resistance of bugs to antibiotics.
What you can do to help.
- Don’t ask for antibiotics, first seek pharmacist advice for over the counter medicines.
- If you are prescribed antibiotics, take them exactly as described, never save them for later and never share them with others.
- Spread the word – tell family and friends about antibiotic resistance.
- Tweet and share #KeepAntibioticsWorking