World Antibiotic Awareness Week

by Juliet Allibone

11 November 2016

Win £100 of amazon vouchers by becoming an antibiotic guardian or depositing your unwanted antibiotics at the College between the 14-18 November

Members of the Imperial College Health Protection Research Unit in HCAI and AMR, will be on hand to take your unwanted antibiotics over lunch-time on Mon, Weds, Thurs and Friday on the second floor Sherfield Building South Kensington and all week on the first floor, Commonwealth Building Hammersmith.

All staff and students are encouraged to come and join us between 12:30-13:30 to test just how well they wash hands, play an antibiotic inspired version of snakes and ladders and learn more about the very real danger that drug resistant infections pose today as well as what we as individuals can do about it.

The team will have plenty of information leaflets and chocolate to hand out and those depositing antibiotics or making a pledge to become an Antibiotic Guardian will be entered into a prize draw to win £100 of Amazon Vouchers- just in time for Christmas!

Last year's amnesty, the first ever held, saw over 200 people from the College community sign up to become antibiotic guardians. A range of antibiotics including Amoxicillin, Doxycycline, Phenoxymethylpenicillin, Flucloxacillin and Co-amoxiclav surrendered for disposal including some from overseas.

The initiative is now being promoted nationally by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education in conjunction with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Public Health England. Imperial College Healthcare Trust will also be promoting an amnesty encouraging patients, visitors and staff to return unwanted antibiotics to their Lloyds outpatient pharmacies based at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith and Hammersmith Hospital in Acton from Monday 31 October until Friday 2 December.

People can also enter the prize draw by making their pledge at www.antibioticguardian.com and emailing their certificate to head.ops@imperial.ac.uk

THE THREAT OF DRUG RESISTANT INFECTIONS

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially resistance to antibiotics, is a growing global problem. Antimicrobial-resistant infections currently claim at least 50,000 lives each year across Europe and the US alone, with many hundreds of thousands more dying in other areas of the world. It is estimated that resistance could result in an extra 10 million people across the world every year by 2050

Antibiotics have been the cornerstone of much of modern medicine, allowing routine surgery to be conducted without the risk of infection and the development of new treatments such as chemotherapy and transplantation which in weakening the immune system rely on antibiotics to stop the patients succumbing to illness. Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat, which if it isn’t addressed, could lead to a scenario where any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics. Routine operations like hip replacements, organ transplants or caesarean section could be deadly because of the risk of infection.

Any use of antimicrobials, however appropriate and conservative, contributes to the development of resistance, but widespread unnecessary and excessive use makes it worse. Overuse and misuse of antimicrobials including pressuring GPs to write prescriptions where they are not necessary, stockpiling old antibiotics for later use or buying them abroad over the counter all contribute to resistance. For an animated explaination of antimicrobial resistance click here

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