
Public Health England has launched a new campaign in Bradford to help ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’.
The campaign warns people that taking antibiotics when they are not needed puts them at risk of a more severe or longer infection, and urges people to take their doctor’s advice on antibiotics.
Public Health England’s ESPAUR report, published yesterday, 9 November, reveals that as antibiotic resistance grows, the options for treatment decrease. Worryingly, four in 10 patients with an E. coli bloodstream infection in England cannot be treated with the most commonly used antibiotic in hospitals.
It is estimated that at least 5,000 deaths are caused every year in England because antibiotics no longer work for some infections and this figure is set to rise with experts predicting that in just over 30 years antibiotic resistance will kill more people than cancer and diabetes combined.