Call for cultural shift on antibiotic use

NPS MedicineWise has used Antibiotic Awareness Week to call for a "cultural shift" in the way antibiotics are used in Australia to combat the serious health issue of antibiotic resistance against a backdrop of virtually no development of new antibiotics.

NPS MedicineWise CEO Dr Lynn Weekes said "Antibiotics are one of the most important medical advances of the last century and have transformed medical practice to enable complex surgery like transplants and treatment of life-threatening bacterial infections. We have an uneasy situation in Australia where we are consuming antibiotics at rates well above the OECD average, reported resistance to antibiotics is increasing and there are virtually no new antibiotics in the drug development pipeline. We need a 'cultural shift' to ensure antibiotics are used only when necessary. This way antibiotics will be preserved and continue to work effectively against bacterial infections".