Public Health Wales is calling on people in Wales to act now to help combat the over use of antibiotic medicines.

Last year, nearly 1.9 million antibiotics were prescribed in Wales. The danger of using too many antibiotics is that it can lead to antimicrobial resistance, when bacteria are no longer killed by the antibiotic. In managing this silent pandemic, Public Health Wales is calling on medical practitioners and the general public to only use antibiotics when really necessary.

To coincide with World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, Public Health Wales is running a campaign that aims to increase awareness of antimicrobial resistance and to encourage best practice among healthcare professionals and the general public in Wales. Great progress was being made in this area pre-Covid. Now that we are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, Public Health Wales is calling on health care professionals and the general public to re-focus on this issue.

Public Health Wales is encouraging medical professionals to only prescribe antibiotics when really necessary. People are being reminded to only use antibiotics exactly as directed by a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. No-one should save antibiotics for later or share them with family, friends or pets. If you have unused antibiotics you should return them to your local pharmacy. Throwing them in the bin or flushing them down the toilet leads to the contamination of rivers threatening human and animal health.

Dr Eleri Davies, deputy medical director and head of HARP Programme, Public Health Wales said: “Antibiotics are a precious resource. We need to use them responsibly. If we don’t, the danger is that our antibiotic medicines will become ineffective, meaning we won’t be able to treat every day diseases.”