Its imperative that we reduce our dependence on antibiotics. The more antibiotics that are prescribed, the more the likelihood of antibiotic resistance occurring. Public Health England have launched an excellent educational video fronted by Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, to encourage people not to ask their doctors for antibiotics. One of the doctors on the video says antibiotic prescribing should be left to doctors to decide and not patients. It also highlights some simple things you can do to cut down infection transmission such as wipe your keyboard, telephone and door handles and toilet flush with antibacterial wipes and wash your hands frequently Such an obvious recommendation but how many people routinely do this? Also when you sneeze, sneeze into a tissue and dispose of it straight away either in a bin or preferably down the loo. If you sneeze and don’t have a tissue handy, sneeze into your elbow and not your hand. If some of the simple steps recommended in the video are taken we should be able to make our existing antibiotics last a little longer and so reduce the pressure to find new ones certainly in the near-future.
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