Over 200 sign up to be an Antibiotic Guardian

by Juliet Allibone

23 November 2015

Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance raise awareness among college staff and students

Last week saw the first ever World Antibiotic Awareness Week which ran from 16th -22nd November. To mark the event members of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance manned stands at South Kensington and Hammersmith Campuses to raise awareness among staff and students of the threat that resistance poses, and take receipt of any unwanted antibiotics.

The collection of unused and unwanted antibiotics was part of an Antibiotic Amnesty, held in conjunction with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Lloyds Pharmacies. The Amnesty saw a range of antibiotics including Amoxicillin, Doxycycline,Phenoxymethylpenicillin, Flucloxacillin and Co-amoxiclav surrendered for disposal.

Failing to take antibiotics according to the instructions; including saving part of the prescription to use at a later date, and buying antibiotics abroad to self-medicate all drive antibiotic resistance. This is because inappropriate or suboptimal consumption of antibiotics allows bacteria to become exposed to the drugs in doses which do not kill them, thus allowing them to adapt and become resistant to the medication in question. Bacteria which become resistant to antibiotics are able to share their DNA with other bacteria. This allows resistance to spread rapidly.

Mark Gilchrist, Consultant Pharmacist in Infectious Diseases at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said "the Trust was fully engaged with the idea of the Antibiotic Amnesty. It was a great way of getting antibiotics off the street and disposed of safely".

Members of the HPRU team also invited College staff and students to become Antibiotic Guardians. This initiative, run by Public Health England, invites people to select one of a number of pledges designed to conserve our working antibiotics. They include pledges to try treating the symptoms of coughs, colds, sore throats and flu for five days rather than going straight to the GP and pledges to take antibiotics exactly as prescribed never sharing them with others. Those with families are encouraged to pledge that they will practice and teach good hand hygiene to reduce transmission of resistance and to talk to their pharmacist about how to treat children's symptoms in the case of a cough or cold rather than going immediately to the GP.

Over 200 people from among the College community pledged to become an Antibiotic Guardian during the course of the week. Those interested in making pledge can still do so here

Members of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in HCAI and AMR took their message about resistance out to their College colleagues last week.

"It was interesting how many people had heard of antibiotic resistance, but didn't know how it affected them or what they could do about it" said Sara Yadav who manned the stand over a number of days. "we spent quite a lot of time explaining that antibiotic failure would pretty well mean the end of modern medicine and that treatments which we now take fore granted including caesarean sections, hip replacements and chemotherapy would cease to be practical without some way to prevent infection".

The group, who used a number of tactics to get people to sign up, including offering sweets and targeting people who were waiting in queues or for lifts, said that they were heartened by the numbers of people who said that they had never or only rarely took antibiotics. They were also pleased at the people who surrendered their antibiotics rather than taking them inappropriately. "It was a great initative" said Fran Husson, a patient representative with the Unit who manned the stand on two days " I think other employers should do the same, to raise awareness of the resistance threat and help reduce the numbers of antibiotics taken when they don't need to be."

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