Antibiotic Awareness Week highlights drug resistance

Not only is this a campaign focused on bringing antibiotic awareness locally, it's also a global initiative set up by the World Health Organization.

Brett Barrett, clinical lecturer with the School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, explains what the week works to shine a light on.

“The goal is to try to increase on a global level public awareness about antibiotics, how they should be used, and then the growing risks of antibiotic resistance.”

Barrett says we should use antibiotics as little as we need to, and when we do have to use them, physicians have to make sure they are prescribing the right drugs, in the right patient, for the right amount of time.

“We do need to have front line clinicians and prescribers that are doing a variety of different things to make sure that when they're choosing to use antibiotics, they're choosing the rights ones and for the right amount of time. But also, supporting front line clinicians and other health providers, to try to decrease how often we have to use antibiotics in our patients.” he told The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS.

Barrett says if excessive antibiotic-use continues, we run the risk of simple things such as ear infections and sore throats, becoming untreatable.

She says as patients, we can assist physicians by reducing the use of these drugs in ourselves.

“We also have to ask our patients to do some things as well to make sure that the other side of that coin, making sure that when they're going to the physician or a prescriber that they're also helping to minimize antibiotic use in themselves.”

World Antibiotic Awareness Week is November 18 to 25.