165 new antibiotic resistant infections every day

Public Health England has estimated that there were 61,000 antibiotic resistant infections in England during 2018 - a nine per cent rise from the year before.

PHE has relaunched the Keep Antibiotics Working campaign to alert the public to the risks of antibiotic resistance, urging people to always take their doctor, pharmacist or nurse’s advice on antibiotics.

While antibiotics are vital to treating life-threatening infections, they are frequently being used to treat less serious illnesses such as coughs, earache and sore throats that can get better by themselves.

The threat of antibiotic resistance continues to grow and the latest English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance report shows that antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections - which can be very serious - rose by 32 per cent between 2014 and 2018. The report also finds that there has been a 17 per cent drop in antibiotic prescriptions written and dispensed in general practice since 2014.

As well as urging the public to always take their doctor’s, pharmacist’s or nurse’s advice on antibiotics, the Keep Antibiotics Working campaign provides effective self-care advice to help people and their families feel better if they are not prescribed antibiotics. The campaign includes TV, radio and digital advertising.

Dr Susan Hopkins, AMR Lead at Public Health England, said: “We want the public to join us in tackling antibiotic resistance by listening to your GP, pharmacist or nurse’s advice and only taking antibiotics when necessary. Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them is not a harmless act – it can have grave consequences for you and your family’s health, now and in the future. It’s worrying that more infections are becoming resistant to these life-saving medicines, and we must act now to preserve antibiotics for when we really need them.”