RDHS Celebrates Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 (14-20 November)

Here at RDHS our aim was to encourage all individuals that when it comes to the use of antibiotics you must, “Be part of the solution and handle them with care”.

We needed to firstly explain that antibiotics help us to fight infections and the misuse of these contribute to resistance. Incorrect diagnosis, incomplete doses and overuse of antibiotics stop them from working effectively, meaning that some infections may become impossible to treat.

People do not realise that antibiotics are a precious resource and how hard it is to develop new variations.

The Australian Commission in Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) have some great resources on how we as a health service can address the issue and help staff and consumers understand the problem.

With these resources we created a quiz for all staff to participate in to help understand how each and every person has a part in preventing antibiotic resistance.

We encouraged RDHS staff and consumers to participate in some way, even by starting the conversation on social media with the national hashtag #AbxAus and the international hashtag #AntibioticResistance.

Antibiotics are everyone’s business, preserve them and use them with care.