▫️#Stop abusing antimicrobials!

world antimicrobial awarenessweek.

Misusing or overusing antibiotics like Augmentin, Flagyl, Ciprotab, can make your body to develop super bugs.

These super bugs are hard to treat, cause severe disease, or even death!

Antibiotics abuse is when you take antibiotics at the wrong dose, wrong duration, or for the wrong reason.

For e.g. taking Augmentin for only 2 days when it was prescribed for 7 days. Or using antibiotics to treat a headache that is caused by malaria.

A common case is the excessive use of antibiotics in children with ear infections; mothers giving their kids lots of over-the-counter antibiotics the moment they have an ear ache.

This has led to a breed of super bugs entirely resistant to antibiotics.

The most alarming thing is that these antibiotic-resistant super bugs can easily spread from one person to another.

Also, some super bugs can pass their antibiotic resistance to other bugs, leading to a dangerous spread of incurable super bugs.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.

It can affect anyone, of any age, in any country of the world.

In fact, many infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and typhoid, are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them are becoming less and less effective.

How to stop antibiotics abuse and reduce antibiotics resistance;

1. Only use antibiotics when prescribed by a certified health professional.
2. Always follow your health worker’s advice when using antibiotics.
3. Never demand antibiotics if your health worker says you don’t need them.
4. Never share or use leftover antibiotics.
5. Prevent infections by;

• practising safer sex
• regularly washing your hands
• keeping your vaccinations up to date
• avoiding close contact with sick people, &
• preparing your food under good hygiene conditions.

References:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261992413_Antibiotic_Abuse_in_Developing_Countries

https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-017-0208-x